


What Meets the Eye

by MetellaStella



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Animals, But not as cute as a kid in a candy shop of books, Dark Past, Epic Friendship, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Friendship, I'm talking fullblown Shipping Levels of platonic fluffiness you guys, Iroh fathers the whole Gaang LIKE A BOSS, Iroh was a general in a genocidal regime remember that huh, Kindred Spirits, Love Of Animals, Maybe I'll edit that out, Oops that's probably spoilers, Or maybe I'll be living on the edge, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Professor Zei is an anthropology nerd and it's adorable, Soul Bond, Spirit Animals, Spirit Foxes are kinda cute too I guess MEH, Spirit World, The Korra series did W.S.T. dirty and I am STILL not over it RAAAAGGGHHH, The hell? Why is that not a tag?, Toph and Iroh have some heartbreaking moments OK, Uncle Iroh is best dad, Wan Shi Tong's Library, Worldbuilding, Worldbuilding is my anti-drug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26361589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetellaStella/pseuds/MetellaStella
Summary: The first day Ty Lee meets Azula's targets, she's immediately smitten. They're all complete and total strangers, yet their auras glow invitingly, their positive chi drawing her like a magnet. She finds many things in common with two of them. TyLokka, sibling!Toko, KataangAlthough it is heavily based on canon, this is NOT just a "stick Ty Lee into the Gaang, put her with Sokka, and everything else that happens is the same" story.I also address some questions like:(1)"How did Zhao get the identity of the Moon and Ocean Spirits from Wan Shi Tong?"(2)"What happened during Iroh's journey to the Spirit World?"(3)"Why is Jeong Jeong's philosophy of Fire so different from the dragons'?"(4)"Why did Hama not rescue any of the other waterbenders from the Southern Tribe when she escaped?"(5)"Um . . . . . Ursa?"(6)"And what t h e  H E C K is up with the Avatar State? Smash your back into a rock and suddenly you're spiritually enlightened?"To name a few.
Relationships: Aang & Ty Lee (Avatar), Aang & Yue, Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Iroh, Toph Beifong & Ty Lee, Toph Beifong & Zuko, Tui & Yue (Avatar), Ty Lee & Zuko (Avatar), Yue & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 77





	1. Omashu

**_T_** **_oph. I've always felt that her story was very unresolved. I've written a series of oneshots about her (called Chronicles of the Blind Bandit) and this retelling will put a bit of focus on fleshing her out as well. This is Toko, though in the timeframe of the show, their relationship will NOT be romantic, for age difference reasons._ **

**_Oh, and Yue makes a few appearances as a Spirit, for fans of her. ;)_**

**_I hope you like my interpretation of Ty Lee. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! I thrive on well-thought out reviews._** I am ALWAYS willing to take on a beta reader Sifu, too, if anyone is interested!  
  
Addition, for 2020: This story has been up on FFN since the Avatar glory days. I figured since the new Netflix series is coming out, I should do all the legwork of getting this cross-posted to AO3. My username and the story title are the same. You are always welcome to read advance chapters over there! 

**_Also, please bear with me these first two chapters. To offset their copy-and-paste nature, I worked to insert things that you 'didn't' see happening behind or between the scenes._ **

**_And at the end, it might be very helpful to recall a certain quote from a very infamous brown and black lion. ;)_ **

"I'm really happy here. I mean, my aura has never been pinker." –Ty Lee

_Ty Lee,_

_Princess Azula gave me your address today._ _How could you just run off like that? You didn't tell any of us when you were leaving? Lin is absolutely heartbroken. You didn't even ask me for any money. Are you doing all right, Ty? Please write back._

_Your Loving Sister,_

_Weici_

l

_Dear Weici,_

_I'm so, so sorry. You know why I wanted to leave, though, Wei! I just didn't tell you when I was going because I don't think I would have been able to go through with it if all of you got upset beforehand. You wouldn't believe it here! There are people that have been everywhere! All the way from the Great Divide to the Batola Mountain Range, and the ringmaster says we're going to be skirting the Si Wong for the next season. There's this girl who's been showing me around, she's a colonial and she juggles fire but she says she's never had real lessons or anything because her family couldn't afford it. And guess what? I have to buy my own food sometimes! Can you imagine? I mean, I knew I'd have to dress and do my own makeup and stuff, but sometimes I have to cook too! This really nice old lady who reads fortunes- she reminds me a lot of Auntie Ryu- she showed me what to buy at the market and how to haggle . . ._

The stream-of-consciousness litany went on for several pages, describing her first days at the circus.

At the end, it was signed,

_Lots of Love,_

_Ty Lee_

l

_Dearest Ty Lee,_

_I'm glad to hear you're settling in so well. Remember, you really must make an effort to remember peoples' names- I know you're being sweet, but it would be extra nice if you did them that courtesy. I'm sure it will be like the first day at school- you'll get them gradually. Please be careful, too! I'm glad you like it there, but stay on your toes, it can be dangerous! But what am I saying? You'll be perfectly fine. You did teach Yunru and Meili chi blocking better than that instructor did. Ha, little sister, my servants have tried to teach me a thing or two about cooking, but mostly I think you'll just have to fend for yourself. Any advice I give is likely to bring you more trouble than good. I've passed your letter along to everyone, and I must say some of them quite liked the descriptions of the lemurs! And I'm sending money, I always will, when I can! We'll all be rooting for you. Good luck and best wishes from the Capitol. My husband sends his regards as well._

_Your Loving Sister,_

_Weici_

* * *

"Ty Lee, could that _possibly_ be you?"

"Azula!" Ty Lee gracefully bent out of her handstand and twirled into a prostrate position. After observing the formality she rushed up to her old friend and hugged her. "It's so good to see you!" How long had it been? They had graduated in the early summer, and it was early spring now. It had been almost two years. She wondered why Azula hadn't told her she was coming.

"Please, don't let me interrupt your-" the firebender raised an eyebrow- " _whatever_ it is you were doing."

Ty Lee languidly flipped over backwards and resumed her yoga exercises, observing the fire princess's beige aura- she _was_ always the one to like _order_.

"Tell me, what is the daughter of a nobleman doing here? Certainly our parents didn't send us to the Royal Academy For Girls to end up in-" Azula glanced disdainfully around at the shabby disarray that made up the furnishings of the traveling circus and spotted a platypus bear being manhandled by three attendants- "places like _this_."

It just wasn't 'fitting.' That's why the beige had appeared- it was her inability to understand. Ty Lee saw her own aura fade slightly and she frowned.

"I have a proposition for you." Azula said casually as she examined her nails. "I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my old fuddy duddy uncle, don't you?"

"Oh yeah." Ty Lee smiled warmly, remembering the old man's serene blue halo. "He was so _funny_."

"I would be _honored_ if you would join me on my mission." Azula told her.

"Oh. I uh- would love to-" Ty Lee's silver eyes nervously flitted around and she once again flipped to her feet. "But the truth is, I'm really happy here. I mean- my aura has _never_ been _pinker_." She gave a wide smile and her pink's intensity momentarily increased, thinking of all her fans. The traveling show wasn't luxurious, it wasn't extravagant, but she had honestly made it her home.

"Well," Azula sighed, "I wouldn't want you to give up the life you love just to please me."

Ty Lee could immediately tell she was lying. The tan surrounding her had, predictably, turned to orange.

Ty Lee inclined her head in a small bow, trying to infuse all the quiet gratitude she could into her few words, hoping that Azula would change her mind, but knowing that she wouldn't. "Thank you, Azula."

She pulled one of her feet in a vertical position above her head as Azula walked away.

"Of course," Azula said over her shoulder, "before I leave, I'm going to catch your show."

Ty Lee flinched. She didn't have to turn around to know that the _orange_ around the princess had flared menacingly. The color of control.

"Uh, yeah, sure, of course." Ty Lee didn't react fast enough to mask the uncertainty in her voice.

* * *

"We are deeply honored to have the Fire Lord's daughter at our _humble_ circus." The ringmaster proclaimed.

"Deeply honored, and deeply frightened." Ty Lee muttered under her breath as she balanced on one hand. The man's smoky gray aura, which extended a good three feet out from his body, was visible even from where she was.

"Tell us if there's anything we can do to make the show more enjoyable." He told the Fire Nation princess.

Ty Lee couldn't hear what they were saying next, but it couldn't be anything good. Azula's orange had gained a shade of red, and the ringmaster's gray aura was gradually adopting a sickly green hue, his fear for himself battling with his fear for his performer.

Ty Lee started to sweat when he caught the net on fire. Then all hell broke loose. What was she _thinking_ , letting out all of those animals? The red of their auras mingled with the red of the tent, and Ty Lee felt like she was going to faint- the negative energy was more oppressive than the heat. She wobbled precariously on the tightrope.

A vulture griffin roosted on the near platform. Its feathers were raised, muscles tensed, wings half-cocked, as it looked down at the din below with a bald head. His tail twitched erratically from side to side. It was obviously distressed, but its aura was a very diluted red, which meant there was a great deal of fear, not pure aggression. Maybe it would remember her?

She unfocused her eyes and turned her attention to her own aura. Blue. She thought. She had to shut all this out. Pure, sky blue. She searched for her point of balance on the tightrope: her own center of gravity was very familiar, like a long-time friend (or rather, like a friend that _wasn't_ trying to threaten her). Once she centered her body, the connection to her mind ran straight as an arrow. This was just another lesson, no different than all the exercises she practiced. "Can you trust me, big fella?"

She bent her arm and launched herself off of the wooden conflagration that she was balancing on, and it tumbled down into the burning net.

She deftly caught the tightrope and swung herself into a squatting position, two hands and two feet firmly planted on the wire. Any other performer wouldn't have dared to leap _towards_ a vulture griffin with such suddenness, but because she had effectively "told" it she meant no harm, it simply turned its sunken neck toward her instead of attacking in surprise.

She stood and tiptoed the rest of the way to the beast. "You really _are_ ugly." She whispered with a mischievous smile and a chuckle. "But you have a heart of gold." She rested her hand on the white feathery shoulder. "Actually, an aura of blue, but who's counting?" The creature's aura had taken on her color. Its feathers had relaxed, and its wings were now completely folded, despite the turmoil below.

* * *

Ty Lee sat in her dressing room waiting for Azula. She usually felt like examining her immaculate appearance in the mirror, but tonight she had to compose herself, and all her thoughts were turned inward. Hers was a delicate balance between vanity and spirituality.

"What an _exquisite_ performance." Azula pronounced from the doorway.

 _Performance?_ She shook her head mentally. The rest of the night had consisted of the acrobat and various handlers rounding up the animals Azula had let out.

The princess tossed a bouquet of expensive black flowers onto a table as she entered. The beautiful blooms were as good as a thrown gauntlet, as if daring the acrobat to resist her will. "I can't _wait_ to see how you'll top yourself tomorrow," she said, still playing the game.

"I'm sorry, Azula, but unfortunately there won't be a show tomorrow." Ty Lee said with practiced calm.

"Really?"

"The universe is giving me strong hints- that it's time for a career change." She placed her ornamental crown on its hook and turned to face Azula. "I want to join you on your mission." Ty Lee lied.

* * *

"So you have to leave, just like that?"

"I have two hours to pack before the ship sets off." Ty Lee answered the familiar voice softly without turning around as she picked around her small room half-heartedly.

The girl now standing in the doorway was a good deal older and taller than Azula. Her tan skin tone clearly marked her as a commoner- not because all nobles were pale but because she had obviously gained many of her freckles from spending long days working out in the sun. "Well, you did tell me you were friends with the princess, but to be honest, I didn't really believe you."

"That's okay." Ty Lee said.

"So is it true? That she can make blue flames?" The juggler raised a hand and looked into her own fire speculatively.

"Yeah."

The other girl whistled appreciatively. "Not even the Firelord has figured out how she does it?"

Ty Lee shook her head. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small sheaf of papers, folding them up in a binder and stowing it in her growing package. There had been three handwritten copies of the letter she sent her sister two years ago.

The top of the sheaf read:

_Sounds interesting there, Ty! I would have come with you just because of that but sleeping in a room that's ten by ten square doesn't sound too fun at all, or having to move every few weeks. Do you really not have a bath, only showers? How can you stand that? And you have to make your own food? And walk everywhere? (if you're even in a town worth exploring, that is) Will you miss the carriage rides? Plus I've heard it gets ridiculously cold some of the places you're going. Try to write me every once in a while so I don't have to immolate myself out of boredom, please._

Separated from the rest of the letters were short, direct notes, with a royal seal, which had been repeated identically several times over.

_Ty Lee, are keeping up with your combat training?_

"You know, the ringmaster is going to start treating the animals the way he did before once you're gone. I think old Susa and the like are pretty safe." She tagged off the name of the ancient and docile elephant mandrill, "but Yenu? Or Irako? They're in for it."

Ty Lee sighed. "Irako has improved a lot, though," she responded, talking about the vulture lion she had calmed. As she had gradually learned, the ringmaster was cruel, there was no doubt about it. He worked the people almost as hard as the animals. Acts had to be perfect and polished- unless they of course, included animals- then they were praised if they were daring and impromptu. Despite the effort he put into giving the circus a glamorous front, he made shady deals- rumor was that he would even trade with the likes of **sandbenders** if they had a bargain he was interested in. He took in people from all backgrounds, treatment weighing on whether he thought you were a "real" Fire Nation citizen or not. Had you lived in the homeland? Had you served in the army? Were you of noble blood? He paid wages in order of rank- those from the highest-up families got the most money. Ty Lee had realized somewhere in the middle of her first year that she was not taking the brunt of his abuse.

"Hey, by the way, thanks." The girl said quietly. "For everything." She pulled out a sack full of coins and thumbed through them. "You're sure you don't want any of it back?"

Ty Lee smiled and hugged her. "Absolutely, Rila."

* * *

The agile girl moved about the deck of the ship flat-footed, which was unusual for her. She normally took dainty steps, but on the sea her finely tuned balance was thrown off slightly. Her poise was so _natural_ when the ground under her was solid and unmoving. She began to miss her 'old friend,' her center of gravity. But Azula had promised that they would be traveling by land after they arrived at their destination. The Fire Nation circus the princess had retrieved the acrobat from traveled throughout the Earth Kingdom colonies. Therefore, setting out from a southern inlet near Gaoling and now rounding the peninsula of Chin Village, it wouldn't take long to get to the newly captured Omashu.

"Mai's father has been appointed governor. I doubt his competence, however." Azula rolled her eyes as they made their way down a corridor towards the deck. "Father always said we ran out of good administrative material with the expansion of territory on the Acjan region. They have to be the smartest and the toughest to deal with Fong to the southwest." She shook her head. "It is simply _unbelievable_ that man can hold a base so close to the Fire Nation. Needless to say, Omashu is still a pretty dangerous place too, with all the rabid Earth Kingdom scum around- I'll bet old 'Governor' Tont isn't complaining about Mai's skills _now._ "

l

_Instead of sending Mai to live in student housing at the boarding school, her parents moved to the Capitol with her, into a second house that, by its proximity to the palace itself, proclaimed their high status. Ty Lee thought it was sweet that they would do that for their daughter, but the other seven-year-old quickly tried to put a damper on her enthusiasm._

_"They only did it to keep an eye on me." Mai pointed out sourly under her breath on the way to Arithmetic one day._

_"Oh, I'm sure that's not right, Mai!" Ty Lee gabbed. "Cheer up! You have a house all to yourself!" she exclaimed excitedly. She had never had anything completely to herself- even here she saw her three of elder sisters regularly between classes. This was the first time she had gotten any separation from them at all. Throughout her first grades the little girl would be torn between freedom from suffocation she had left behind and uncomfortable exposure to the unfamiliar in school. Sometimes she sought out her older siblings for advice, or to just have a little piece of home again. Sometimes she reveled in being apart. Sure, she loved them; her roommate back at the dorms was nice too. But the idea of living by yourself was fascinating to her. "Can I come over?"_

_"I guess." Mai sighed._

_Of course, once they had made friends with Azula, Mai's abode paled in comparison. One of the few times they did go to Mai's house after that, it was a matter of business. You see, when Mai revealed her unique hobby, initiated at the palace, her parents disapproved at once. Shuriken were not something to be handled by noble lady._

_But a visit from the princess herself quickly changed the political sycophants' opinion._

l

"So 'Zula, this is your first time out of the Fire Nation?" Ty Lee asked.

"Yes. Makes me want to go crawl home and take a good scrub, the people here." Azula replied dryly.

Ty Lee giggled. "Oh, they're not that bad."

l

_"So you're an earthbender?" Ty Lee asked the middle-aged man. "Nice to meet you."_

_His hand jerked and he dropped the pole he was in the middle of putting up. "Shhhhhh!" He put a finger to his lips and waved the other hand to silence her. "How'd you know that?" He looked around nervously as he bent over to pick it up again and prop up the sagging canvas overhang. "I d-don't even look like a- you know." It was true. The tent-pitcher didn't have the stereotypical build. He was lanky and wiry-muscled, not thickly set. "You're that new girl, right? On the tightrope? Who told you? Who knows?"_

_"It's in your chi," she explained. She could sense its movement in people: that was the reason she was so gifted in Kyusho Jutsu, chi blocking. "My jutsu sifu told me that earthbenders-"_

_"Stop saying that word!" He hissed, cutting her off._

_"Why?"_

_"It's- just listen, you can't tell anyone all right?"_

_"Why?"_

_"'Cause if word got to the ringmaster he'd kick me out."_

_"Why?"_

_"'Cause-" he gave an frustrated breath at her pestering repeats- "'cause he just would, okay? And I don't want to stir up trouble, I swear, I just want to do my job."_

_"Okay."_

_"Thanks- um . . .?"_

_"Ty Lee."_

_"Ty Lee. I'm Poshu."_

l

"So how have you and Mai been, Azula?"

"All right, I suppose. I've been training, commanding and drilling ranks of internal troops." She shrugged. "Mai hasn't moved back out of the Capitol, until now that is. You got news about that tour she took of her uncle's prison."

Ty Lee giggled. "She told me. I bet that took some talking to her parents as well."

The princess rolled her eyes. "Yeah." She put on a mocking tone, "'That's no place for a _lady_ , it's too _dangerous_ for our _delicate_ little _flower._ ' Please. The only thing worse than Tont is his wife."

"I haven't seen you guys since Hira's graduation." Ty Lee said thoughtfully as they climbed a set of stairs into the open air. Hira was a year younger than Ty Lee, and the acrobat had gotten leave last year to travel to see her little sister finish her time at the Academy for Girls.

Azula gave a sardonic smile. "You have a lot of those to attend, don't you?"

"Yeah. Lin is next. But two years after that, after Jia, I'll be done- Wow." She paused in realization. "It's hard to think of her as that old. She's already ten now. And you're fourteen now, aren't you?" She asked eagerly. She would be fifteen by the summer solstice, Mai was fifteen recently already, but they had all been in the same grade because Azula was placed a year ahead.

"Not that age really matters. It's talent that gets you places." Azula appropriately remarked as they emerged. "Speaking of which, I have something to show you, Ty Lee. It's a very advanced form of firebending."

The princess reached the middle of the metal platform and held her hand out to the other girl who had been following closely in a gesture to move back. Ty Lee puzzled at the slight green sheen that appeared in her aura- was she really _worried_ about hitting her? She backed a few paces and her eyes widened slowly at the massive energy buildup. She realized that whatever this was was not the quick, familiar flow of energy from the stomach, the "sea of chi," to the hands, that was usual for firebenders.

The hair stood up on Ty Lee's neck and unease began to gnaw at her own "sea of chi" as negative and positive energies were gradually forced apart, creating a pulling and tugging sensation around Azula.

And then- the firebender's aura disappeared.

As an erratic string of light burst from her two pointed fingers, Ty Lee stumbled backwards and caught herself on the railing of the edge of the ship, unable to make a sound but feeling as if she should be shrieking.

The princess raised a groomed eyebrow at the acrobat's reaction.

Then she smiled and her aura returned, orange.

"A-Azula- y-your-"

"I'm a lightningbender." The princess said proudly, misjudging the source of Ty Lee's shock.

"Well y-yeah, but- your aura it- it was _gone._ "

Azula tilted her head slightly. "Really? _Inter_ esting." She said lazily.

"Lightning," she informed her, "requires complete peace of mind to conjure, Ty Lee. I can't be feeling _anything_ when I separate the energies. _Fire_ is fueled by anger." She nodded her head. "But _lightning_ is fueled by a disciplined mind."

Ty Lee quickly tried to digest this information, but her stomach was having none of it. The pool of energy was doing somersaults that put to shame all the other acrobatics of the girl in which it resided.

"T-Then you must need t-to meditate as much as I do . . ." she said weakly, trying to recompose herself.

Azula nodded. "Yes, it's like sweeping out an attic- you've got to get all the useless junk out."

Ty Lee wasn't sure what to say about that.

"You, know, I really can't comprehend-" Azula began airly as she circled her predatorily, a hard edge creeping into her voice, "why you like it here so much Ty Lee. You say the people 'aren't that bad?' Please."

A weight settled in the pit of her stomach now, squashing the nervous flutter, but solidifying into dread.

She had said that her aura had never been pinker.

She had essentially said that she was _happier there than with Azula._

The firebender came to a stop in front of her. "The _people_ here," she continued viciously, "are primitive. Even the Fire Nation citizens from the colonies are still beneath you. You need to remember where you're from- and what your legacy is, instead of spending time with people who are below your status."

The subtext was ringing in her ears. ' _You left me and Mai. And then you had the audacity to say something like that? To refuse me?'_

Azula leaned in closer. "I'll leave you to ponder that, Ty Lee."

* * *

As she was making her way down to her room she overheard a hushed conversation.

"I'll bet she thinks she can ' _command the tides_.'. You know what, _princess_ , I've navigated the sea for nearly forty years. I've watched it take out some of our best, even before the Ocean Spirit went on his little rampage in the North- and I had to go through **_that_** , too." He made what was unmistakeably a shuddering noise. "Ships smashed like they were paper, men screaming. He and the moon command the friggin' tides, not you little-miss-full-of-yourself."

A softer-spoken tone answered, "And then she acted _surprised_ when we had to drop the anchor in mid-sail. Like I would say that we shouldn't pull in for no reason? Like I made up a swift cross-current just for kicks? Impatient. Really, putting of us all in danger just so she can-" the words suddenly became thin and strained and were punctuated by small pants of pain- " _get somewhere- a few hours- ah- or so- ah- earlier?_ Damn, we might have all ended up ' _smashed against the rocky shore_ ' on her whim." The last part was muted, as if he was bearing his teeth.

"Had no right to do _this_ to you, either, by Agni. If I know anything, it's that the Dragon of the West wouldn't have come quietly, regardless. He knows good and well that his brother wants his head. Of course, now he has a legitimate excuse for it. How could a _royal_ ever turn traitor . . . What's the world coming to?"

Ty Lee slowed. She knew she probably couldn't walk past the hall they were in without them seeing her, but she didn't want them to think she had been eavesdropping. She backtracked and began to whistle nonchalantly to alert them of her presence. Her merry tune faltered as she laid eyes on the source of the second voice.

His entire arm and neck were bandaged, and across his upper torso as well. He had obviously begun to peel the cloth off of his wrist and was halfway up his bicep, his face twisted into an ugly grimace. The skin exposed was raw and shiny.

The other man, who held fresh replacement strips, in addition to what was presumably a map rolled up under his arm, acknowledged her. "Ah, hello there, m'lady."

She blinked, trying to tear her gaze from the streaked red forearm. "H-hi."

"Captain here's-"

"I'm not the captain any more."

"You still are to me." He rebuked assertively. He muttered something that sounded like "- _hasn't been on this ship for nearly as long as you_ -"

He turned back to Ty Lee. "As I was saying, Captain here is treating a pretty bad burn. Wouldn't want you to watch that now, hmm? Move along." His inflection was gruff, but had a faint undercurrent of kindness.

Ty Lee quickly nodded wordlessly.

"Don't worry, we'll get it properly healed next stop. She'll be gone by then." The first man said as she moved away.

"What can I say?" The ex-captain replied ruefully, "Apparently even small mistakes can land you in deep water."

* * *

Several hours later, a litter carried Azula towards the center of Omashu, and Ty Lee walked along beside. A girl with sleek black hair awaited them as the procession halted and Azula stiffly climbed down.

"Please tell me you're here to kill me." Mai joked in a deadpan voice as she inclined her head respectfully to Azula. She smiled a bit and the two girls chuckled.

Ty Lee watched the spark of kinship, yellow-green, that flickered across the two. Mai's aura was as muddled as ever: hers was a different gray than fear. Fear was translucent, like all the other colors; it came and went. Her gray, however, was almost always present. It was opaque and obscuring. She saw the same thing occasionally with Azula, too. Ty Lee rushed up to Mai and gave her a hug. If anything, the aura around the elder friend had become even _more_ depressing. Ty Lee didn't know how long she could keep with such company before _both_ of the grays enveloped her. She always had to keep up a chipper attitude to negate their effects.

"I thought you ran off and joined the circus." Mai said as she put a hand to her back. "You said it was your calling."

Ty Lee stood back from her and observed the slightly darker green tint cross her friend's shell. Concern. "Well, Azula called a little louder." Ty Lee replied, effectively quashing the sarcasm that tried to slip into her voice.

"I have a mission." Azula cut in. "And I need you both."

"Count me in. Anything to get me out of this place." Mai glared up at her mansion home, her aura darkening.

Azula began to walk up the steps as she talked. "Our targets are my brother and uncle."

Mai's aura changed green at the word "brother."

Ty Lee voiced her friend's concern when it was obvious that she wouldn't do it herself. "Azula? When you say Zuko is a _target_ -"

Azula stopped. "He's on the run with a self-pronounced traitor." She said flatly, offering no more explanation.

Mai stared at the ground deferently. "But he has- he has been pursuing the Avatar, which was what his father asked him to do, right?"

Azula's orange aura sharpened and Ty Lee winced at the spike of negative energy.

Mai's voice was barely audible. "Could he join us?"

Azula observed her for a long moment.

"We'll see, Mai. If the opportunity presents itself, perhaps . . . but I doubt he will take kindly to the old fuddy duddy's death or imprisonment."

This time Ty Lee's aura flashed green. That pretty blue aura, erased-

She fought to control her expression.

"But first things first. Father has requested that I check on the sorry state of this occupied city."

"Sorry is _right._ " Mai grumbled. "The rebels have got my little brother as a hostage. Cowards. When their assassination attempts don't work, they pull underhanded crap like this. At least with the former I was _mildly_ entertained."

Ty Lee suppressed a shudder. Did it sound like- Did it sound like she was _glad_ she and her parents were being attacked? She stole a glance toward Mai. When people talked about feelings in the abstract, their auras usually didn't always change to match their thoughts. The gray remained firmly in place, betraying nothing, and she couldn't shake the feeling on the interpretation of her words.

Azula reached the ornately wrought door which two guards pushed obligingly open.

"Princess!" the governor, Mai's father, exclaimed with forced enthusiasm, "What an honor it is to have you here!" He bowed as he walked. "May Agni shine upon you and light your wa-"

"Yes, yes, just get to the point." Azula said drolly. "My friends and I have more important business to attend to than to dither around here." She reached the main red-adorned throneroom of the former earth kingdom palace and sat in the governor's chair.

The governor and his wife knelt before her.

"I apologize." He began. "You've come to Omashu at a difficult time. At noon, we're making a trade with the resistance to get Tom-Tom back."

"Yes, I'm so _sorry_ to hear about your son."

Ty Lee, however, saw no green in her aura whatsoever.

"But really, what did you expect by just letting all the citizens _leave?_ " Her red aura intensified as she stood and voiced her disapproval for the evacuation of sick Earth Kingdom natives she had been briefed on. "My father has trusted you with this city, and you're making a _mess_ of things!"

The Governor prostrated himself. "Forgive me, princess."

"You stay here." She quietly commanded him as she stepped down from the throne. "Mai will handle the hostage trade so you don't have a chance to _mess it up_."

Ty Lee and Mai stood to follow her out.

"And there is no more 'Omashu.' I'm renaming it in honor of my father, the City of New Ozai."

* * *

The three Fire Nation girls made their way to the rendezvous point, a construction site where they could lower their "half" of the trade, the former king of the Earth city. He was tightly bound in a crate which resembled a large metal coffin.

Ty Lee looked out at the three rebels who had come to meet them.

She missed the initial exchange of words between them and Azula, because even this far away, she could see their auras as clear as day. She briefly wondered if the one in the front could see auras, too, because he was wearing an ensemble that, like hers, matched his own energy. He was _yellow_. An _intense_ yellow! Such a free-spirited, joyful, playful aura! What was he doing in the middle of a hostile negotiation like this? And the girl was a beautiful, invigorating green. The last one, the tallest, holding Mai's brother, was, more appropriately for the situation, emanating beige.

She came back to her senses as Mai walked forward and said, "The deal's off!"

The crane began to lift the "coffin" away, and Ty Lee registered that they were going after Mai's brother without trading, which is probably what Azula had been planning all along, anyway.

The yellow boy darted forward with speed that she might have envied and Azula shot a massive blue blaze at him. Ty Lee's jaw dropped in astonishment as the boy sprang into the air and his chi exploded from his chest, swirling in all directions. He kicked off of the construction beams and opened what looked like a giant orange fan.

Ty Lee heard Azula whisper, "The _Avatar_. My lucky day."

"So that's what _airbending_ looks like!" Ty Lee gasped in amazement.

" _Come on_ , Ty Lee!" Mai admonished, sprinting towards the other two.

"Oh, yeah, right. Coming!" Ty Lee ran after her friend and quickly overtook her.

The girl's aura swelled, turning a muted red. The chi around the middle of her back stood out to the acrobat. _A waterbender!_ Sure enough, the energy swept out into a tendril of the liquid. _Wow!_ Ty Lee couldn't help but smile. Two bending styles she had never seen before in one day! Maybe this would be just as interesting as the circus.

She jumped lightly out of the way as the girl swung the water out at her. She zigzagged around her, moving towards the boy and trusting Mai to keep the waterbender occupied. They really _did_ need to get Mai's brother back, regardless of the comfortable feeling her initial impressions had created.

She landed a blow on the boy's leg, knocking him on his back so he wouldn't crush the toddler he was carrying. But then something grabbed her ankle and yanked her off her feet. She flew through the air and landed hard on the wooden platform, momentarily dazed. "What-" she looked down at her ankle and saw that it was wet. _Water could **do** that?_ It had felt as solid as a rope. She got to her feet and fixed the waterbender in her sight, testing her knees to make sure nothing was sprained before sprinting towards her. The dark-skinned girl's back was turned again- she was engaged with Mai. Ty Lee quickly jabbed her hand into each of her biceps and the water fell from her hands as her bending chi was cut off.

Mai smiled. "Not much without your bending, are you?" She ran and locked an arm around her, putting a blade to her neck. "Now where did he go with my brother?" she said evenly. The boy had disappeared.

Ty Lee's skin tingled as she sensed the approach of a gigantic collection of energy.

"M-Mai-" she started-

But too late. Utterly astonished for the _third_ time that day, she watched a huge furry horned animal rise in the air and come to rest on the platform.

" _What in the world_ -"

"Hey!" The boy shouted, riding astride its neck. "Let her go!" He addressed Mai, who still had a tight grip on the waterbender.

"You give my brother to my friend right there-" Mai nodded towards Ty Lee- "and I will."

The boy made a face. "Fine, then!"

He slid down the beast's flat tail and walked towards Ty Lee, who was now standing next to Mai.

The boy handed her the child.

She released the girl.

Ty Lee and Mai skirted away as the huge creature shifted and the wooden boards under it bent and splintered. "What _is_ that thing?" Ty Lee called up to them as the blue-clad pair settled onto the creature's back. The boy answered her smugly in clearly enunciated syllables. "He's a Giant. Flying. Bison."

"He's _amazing_." Ty Lee said.

"Yes. Yes he is." He replied.

"Enough _chatter!_ " Mai flung several arrows at them and the waterbender summoned ice to block them.

Suddenly the tail was lifted and the creature kicked off, knocking Mai backward and leaving Ty Lee standing.

* * *

"Yes, I've read about that. The Avatar's steed." Azula crossed her arms as she listened to the girls recount the fight, beige aura hungry for information. They made their way back towards the former Earth palace. "That and the bender are the top threats then. We need to be rid of the waterbender at the first opportunity. I'm not sure how to deal with the bison, and the order for the Avatar has been changed. He is no longer to be captured alive, after what happened at the North Pole." She paused. "I really have a hard time believing it was the same kid people talk about, though. All he did today was avoid me."

"Cowards." Mai repeated. "All of them. Won't stand and fight."

When they reached the governor again, Ty Lee handed him back his son, and his wife wrung her hand and hugged Mai. "Good job, good job, you showed those nasty hooligans who's boss-"

"Now," Azula waved her stream of thanks silent. "I was not given very specific stats about the spread of this disease. If we have a mass epidemic on our hands, we need to _act._ We've lost _every single_ potential worker for the factories to be installed here, but that's _nothing_ compared to what they could do to the population if they travel too far. Are there any medics here?"

Two people of the gathered dozen, a man and a woman, raised their hands slowly.

"I want a scholarly description, _immediately_. As well as your timetable of infection."

The man scurried away to retrieve records.

"What percentage of the Earth Kingdom people had it a week ago?" She questioned the woman.

"None- t-that we know of, that is. We were only informed of it . . ." she rubbed at her chin. "-today."

"This afternoon, when everyone was sent away? What percentage had it then?"

"We didn't take a measure . . ."

"How many of our soldiers have contracted it?"

"Um, none, princess."

" _None?_ I was informed that much of the population was afflicted. Do your soldiers not have daily contact with these-" she she shuddered slightly in disgust- "- _people_?"

"Well, we are now- post-tulating . . ." she tripped over her words, "it was a disease- from the Fire Nation- they had no immunity to . . ."

"Ah, like the breakout of the Wenua sickness in 35 ASC." She nodded thoughtfully, using the time indicator that became popular thirty years After Sozin's Comet. "So please explain to me, if it was a disease that _we_ are immune to and _they_ aren't," she in a deadly, almost whispered tone, " _why_ exactly have they all been driven away?"

No one answered. It was if all the air had been sucked out of the room.

Ty Lee, standing a few paces away from the princess, looked around at all the gray auras and wondered at Azula's mere presence inducing the color so steadfastly. All of the people here, excluding Mai's parents, had never even laid eyes on her before, had they?

Azula resumed slowly, "This might prove to be a _very_ useful tool if we are immune. Think of being able to send two or three men to infiltrate a camp and having the entire company sick by morning?"

She zeroed in on the woman again. "What was the mortality rate?"

" . . . n-none found dead yet, princess . . ."

The man finally returned, flushed and tight-lipped.

"And?" Azula demanded.

"P-princess, we don't have any entries matching the name . . . pentapox."

"Pentapox?" Ty Lee giggled. "Like a pentapus?"

Azula pinched the bridge of her nose.

Hard.


	2. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just wondering, did anyone catch my quasi-cameo of Appa's capturers in Appa's Lost Days in the first chapter? I know there was a lot to slog through.
> 
> Most fun characters in this chapter to write: Azula, Appa, and Momo. The Katara-Sokka dynamic is pretty entertaining as well.
> 
> Qin and "Eyepatch," as he will be affectionately called, are both (very minor) canon characters.
> 
> Just so you know, it was strongly hinted that Mai intended to kill Katara in Return to Omashu. She is not always just "pin 'em to the wall." And . . . uh, don't you know that Ozai's Angels would be masters of whining and complaining? XD

"[I]f you have any illusions about employing that **brutish savagery** that passes for bending among you people, forget them." –Haru's off-shore Warden

"I don't believe in auras." -Mai

The _clop clop clop_ of dragonmoose hooves sounded in time to the jostling of the carriage. Azula had ridden a litter out of the city, but now the three girls were traveling to a Fire Nation outpost where their mode of transportation for their mission, a coal-powered mass of metal with two compartments: one "engine" and a "passenger" car awaited. The parts for it might be manufactured in New Ozai soon. But even if construction of the huge steel processing factories was finished in five months as planned, the pieces would need to be put together outside the city in flatter and more open places like this where they could be maneuvered.

"Your father is a complete moron, Mai." Azula fumed.

"Koala-sheep wool pulled right over his eyes." Mai agreed limply.

"I swear, I do not have time to oversee every crisis that comes up-" Azula continued at a slow, brooding pace, "and to find out that this one was _contrived?_ Now all we have are the prisoners. And then his plan for pursuing the rebels seems haphazard at best. If they make it to past the Waybe River he'll lose them to Fong. Like we need _that_ camp growing any." She tapped a finger on the molded oak frame of the window agitatedly, watching it turn black at her heated touch. "The thirtieth division may have been able to intercept them a few months ago- they were _right_ in their path, but when their prison rig was destroyed their escaped prisoners reclaimed their mining village and Fong backed them up. We've been effectively pushed out of that area."

"And my dad probably would have kept me from going on that recapture mission too." Mai said. "Force me to stay in a now empty city? I didn't think it could possibly get any worse. Before they left at least I could sometimes watch the squabbles. People here fight about the weirdest things." She gave a small, sneering smile. "This old guy was yelling at another one for having wood floors in his house."

"Oh! He was probably a bender then." Ty Lee observed.

Azula and Mai gave Ty Lee a twin what-are-you-talking-about stare.

"Earthbenders always like to be touching their element." She shrugged. "So they take more notice when they're standing on something besides stone."

"I suppose that's their excuse for running around in bare feet like animals. Just how many of _those_ did you see while you were traveling, Ty Lee?" Azula questioned, "I've heard in few of the colonies they are sometimes actually _allowed_ to live alongside Fire Nation citizens."

"Most of the time they're in separate neighborhoods." Ty Lee said quietly to her feet.

"There was a firebender in my dad's guard who was found out to have an earthbending father." Mai said. "Can you even picture it? _Marrying_ one of them?" The dark-clad noble and the princess made faces at each other.

The carriage hit a bump and all three of them were thrown a few inches into the air. To the superstitious Ty Lee, it was almost as if the earth were purposefully chastising their mockery.

* * *

"This is the very cutting edge of technology princess!" War Minister Qin proclaimed as he presented the invention. "But are you sure you want to use such a prototype? We could outfit you with a much safer vehicle easily-"

"I've read the percentages." Azula said dismissively as she paced all the way around it. "They are nowhere near as _abysmal_ as the war balloons."

"A-ah, yes- well-" he tugged at his collar. "We are working to improve those . . . "

"I suppose I can give you a little leeway on that, seeing as you had to start with a design from a heathen. I think our own home-grown inventions are much more operational. Ba Sing Se will soon find that out as well." She halted. "I expect this tank to be ready to go in five days." She then addressed Ty Lee and Mai. "Now, we need to set up an outline for your mongoose dragon training schedule- the instructor should be here in half an hour . . ."

* * *

When the allotted time had elapsed, the two girls waited for Azula as she made last-minute preparations. During their stay, Ty Lee had been much more accustomed to temporary-type lodgings than Mai, but they had fidgeted in unison while making their way around the tents and barricades. War veterans' eyes often traveled places they had no right to; those of the predominantly male company that didn't make inappropriate noises and comments under their breath, simply stared at them out of overt curiosity. They obviously weren't female soldiers- they'd have uniforms if they were. All of these reactions were only partially mitigated when accompanied by the princess, who ignored them with seemingly practiced ease.

Even later, when word had obviously spread about who they were, they still got glances and questioning looks- perhaps even _more_ so.

Ty Lee twitched in surprise when she heard the voice at the opposite end of the tank start out, "So, you're after the Avatar, eh?" Sometimes she could sense people coming- but only when she concentrated.

Three men stood side by side, scrutinizing them with less lewdness, but more skepticism.

The one on the right had a patch on his right eye. Ty Lee wondered if Mai was reminded of Zuko as well. Had he lost that eye? "You know, I've run into the Avatar twice. West of Serpent's Pass, last winter. Spearheaded a mass murder attempt using a flood. Funny thing is, that was an Earth Kingdom city- only about ten, fifteen percent Fire Nation. You can bet we smoked out all his little accomplices in that forest after that. Then I saw him near here this spring, before he disappeared into the mountains and we sealed him in. I still don't know how he got out of there, seein' as word is he doesn't know earthbending yet. Everyone asks me about him. And I still really don't know much besides he's a little kid."

"So he was talking to me." The one on the left, a good six feet tall, leered down at them, "and I said, well, now, I know why they're sending _little kids_ after the most important objective in all the Fire Nation. It all adds up now."

"Just ignore them, Ty." Mai muttered.

"So, did you just arrive from your cushy manors?"

Ty Lee caught sight of Azula behind them and she started a greeting, "H-"

But Mai put a hand on her shoulder. "No, wait. This should be good." She whispered in her ear.

Azula came to a stop, still unseen, as the middle one drawled jauntily in a thick accent. "You girlies evur seen a mans' guts spewed out crushed under'a rock? Wouldja like t'see Gimpie's eye, here? Y'know some of them dirtslingers have the darndest accuracy."

"What? Nothing?" Leftie prodded, obviously the passive-aggressive leader of the bunch. "I guess the little princess didn't teach them how to make conversation. Does she still play with dolls? That's always a good way to practice."

"I tink they're jus' shy." The middle one crossed his arms. "It's a big ol' sciry worl' when you're not bein' fed fruit tarts all d-"

"Gentlemen."

They went silent at the three deliberate syllables and slowly turned. "I would greatly appreciate it," Azula began in a casual tone, "if you did not _harass_ my subordinates." She lingered over the word ever so slightly.

"Yes, princess." They all bowed. Eyepatch and middleman were rigid, but leftie was calm.

"Goo'day and good luck." Middleman offered shakily. They began to retreat-

"You." Azula pointed with a single long nail.

Leftie didn't have to look to know she was talking about him.

"Here." She directed the nail to the ground in front of her.

He strode to the spot. Her head didn't even reach his shoulders.

"The next time I want advice on how to _make conversation_ ," she said in a low voice, "I will consult someone who can construct his insults based on ability, and not some twisted ignorant notion of aesthetic shallowness."

She glared up at him for a moment more. "Ty Lee, what does his aura look like?" She asked, resuming a conversational tone.

"Are you _serious_?" Mai rolled her eyes in disbelief at the question.

The man's outline was burning a faint red, but Ty Lee had a feeling that a different color was the only thing that would appease her. Not wanting any trouble, she breathed out, "It's gray. The see-through kind."

He gasped as the princess punched him square in the solar plexus. Azula was not as physically strong as many of the soldiers here, it was very true, but she had not only trained her bending. For her height and age she had inordinate force. Coupled with the explosive impact of the superheated air, cushioning her fist, the blow sent him flying. Cerulean flames licked his arms, burning away the cloth parts of his sleeves and lancing across the skin.

The man landed on his back with a moan. She walked nonchalantly over to his side, hoisting his torso up by his breastplate into a sitting position. She put her nose inches from his and hissed, "I don't care if you are Admiral. You will not make passes at the heir apparent."

"I think, ladies," she addressed the two figures, "that his friends here would like a demonstration of your abilities as well." Azula turned her head and seemed to flash the acrobat a wordless golden warning. _Why were you lying to me? I can read people better than that._

Ty Lee didn't realize she had grabbed hold of Mai's sleeve in startled reaction to the sudden blow until that moment. She quickly released and exchanged a glance with the other girl.

"It's just like my uncle says." Mai talked to herself. "Don't take any crap from anyone." She might have been startled as well, but if she was Ty Lee had missed it. She loosed two throwing stars that went whistling a hair's breadth past each of Middleman's ears and then one stilleto that embedded itself into his shoulder. He cried out and dropped to a knee.

Ty Lee's own knees suddenly felt very weak. Why were they injuring their own? Her thoroughly scattered and splintered thoughts tried to coalesce, and failed.

"Ty Lee. We don't have all day." Azula pushed the man onto his back again and he grunted loudly as he hit the ground.

At that, the acrobat seemed to gain coherence. Did it matter? Just do what she says.

She bounded forward as if spurred on by the expression of pain and struck Eyepatch where his shoulder and neck met. He crumpled like a ragdoll.

"Now." Azula straightened, "Where is the engineer?" She strode over to her "subordinates" and said under her breath with a smirk, "The first two were a nice touch, Mai."

* * *

Two days later, the girls clambered out of the tank, on a stop for supplies.

Mai sighed with relief. "I don't know how much more I can take. It makes you so stiff, riding in that thing."

Ty Lee stretched sideways, pulling at one wrist with her other palm. "That's for sure."

Azula rolled her head on her shoulders. "Well, it's the only thing fast enough. In all probability we'll be running out of fuel just as we reach them regardless. The one advantage we have is a tireless machine. We all need to get some sleep while we're here. If my guess is correct, we're going to catch up to them around nightfall, and I intend on forcing them to travel without getting any rest. They'll be exhausted once we finally catch them." She smiled wickedly. "At any rate, you can blame the big brute for your discomfort."

Ty Lee frowned a little to herself. From what she had seen, the Avatar's air bison had an extremely well-developed aura, nothing like the mongoose dragons she and her friends rode. She gazed at one of the scaly creatures, which didn't reciprocate the gesture. She had noticed that reptilian animals almost always were less- well, _emotional_ than others.

Besides, the reason people used komodo rhinos and mongoose dragons was because they obeyed commands without question. Other animals needed your trust. She smiled as she remembered the ostrich horse she had occasionally ridden at the circus, and a pang of regret hit her. She wanted to be back in the spotlight, hearing the reverent ahhs and oohs from the crowd . . . Why was she here?

She looked around at the Fire Nation war camp- the third one so far. Her aura immediately dimmed. It was so depressing, seeing all the drawn faces. Did any of these people really want to be here, either?

* * *

That night, just as predicted, the tank began to slow down. Azula leaped onto the back of her dragon. "This is it girls. Showtime."

Ty Lee and Mai followed suit and the large metal door folded open. The terrain had changed; the last time they had stopped there had been forest all around. Now Ty Lee looked up at the face of a steep rocky incline. At night she could hardly see auras at all, although the lack of light didn't seem to impede her chi sensing. Distance usually muddled both of her senses considerably. But it was odd, she could see the yellow just as clearly as the first time. Was it because he was the Avatar?

Their auras were so pure and bright, and Azula wanted to-

She clenched her jaw and tried to banish the thought. There was nothing she could do about it.

In a flash she and the other two girls were riding up the winding cliff face. She almost yelled as rock suddenly jutted up in front of them, gripping her legs to the leather of the lightweight saddle tighter. But she let out the breath as the mongoose dragons simply bended and adapted to the sudden obstacles, moving swiftly over them. The instructor hadn't been kidding when he said nothing phased them. You give them a direction, and they would keep toward it no matter what. She had to admit, they were impressive creatures, if unnerving. She did her best to remember the brief round of lessons, how to distribute her weight to aid the side-to-side motion of their quick-crawling gait. More rocks continued to punch out of the ground- Azula had told them an earthbender was traveling with the Avatar now.

And if the huge earthen wall that just appeared out of nowhere was any indication, it was a _powerful_ bender. She prepared to reign in her mount, remembering that they couldn't scale a 90 degree angle, but then she sensed Azula's gathering chi. The firebender unleashed a lightning bolt that blasted a hole in the wall, and they clambered through. She looked up to see a small figure rise on a column of earth, and then the Avatar and his friends were already aloft.

Azula let out one more attack before stopping. As Ty Lee watched the floating animal recede to an impossible distance, she could swear that she could still see yellow against the dark. Azula wheeled her dragon around and the other two followed; right before they reached the tank again Ty Lee looked over her shoulder. She had the oddest sensation- that she wanted the yellow to return. _Come back!_ The almost-thought, the partial-plea came unbidden. The blank, unreplying sky made her shiver.

* * *

The next time the tank halted, they had come to a river that was filled with what was unmistakably fur from the flying bison.

Azula, beige aura pulsing, had quickly ascertained that something was amiss. There was a fur trail that led away from the river, but she said, "The Avatar is trying to give us the slip," and pointed towards some trees whose tops had been splintered off. "You two head in that direction and keep your eye out for the bison. _I'll_ follow _this_ trail."

Ty Lee and Mai swerved in and out of the trees on their reptilian steeds, and sure enough, the bison came into view, flying dangerously close to the treeline. Ty Lee sadly watched the creature dip and wobble. Azula had been right. He was exhausted.

He continued to sink through the air, snapping off tips of trees, then skimming across a river, until he finally plowed into the ground on the opposite side.

Ty Lee leaned forward as her dragon reared on its hind legs to dart across the water. Yes, these things were definitely versatile. But it couldn't avoid the waterbender's wave coming towards it. It was engulfed and Ty Lee had to spring from its back, knowing that the creature would be fine, just a little dazed. Just because they skimmed across the water didn't mean they didn't know how to swim.

She caught a tree branch, leaping from trunk to trunk, trying to ascertain the best angle to approach from. She finally landed with a flip and sprang towards the waterbender. The dark-skinned girl was faster on the uptake this time, avoiding her probing fingers narrowly but effectively.

She was vaguely aware of Mai, also attacking the waterbender, until the boy intervened and blocked her onslaught with his club. Then Mai ran after the girl, leaving Ty Lee to deal with the boy. He was slower, and she easily shut down his head-on attacks. After she disabled both his arms and one leg, he used his head to block her next jab. She probably would've acknowledged that as resourceful, except that she was annoyed at the pain that throbbed through her knuckles.

He bounced away from her on one leg towards the waterbender, who was still dodging stilettos. Ty Lee almost laughed when he finally fell over. It was just too funny.

The waterbender didn't have the same reaction. When she caught sight of him she pulled a sheet of water from the river behind her, directing it between him and her assailant. Mai dodged, thinking that the mass was an attack directed at her, but it only solidified into a wall in front of him and she seized the opportunity to strike while the other girl was occupied.

The flying arrows clipped the bender's bare arm. "Rrrrrrr-"

"Stupid! Watch yourself, not me!" The boy admonished from the ground.

"Yeah, say that when you're full of knives, Sokka!" She retorted as she trotted over toward him. They were both in between Mai and Ty Lee now. In getting closer to him, she was getting farther away from the river, and as she stepped she drew her element after herself. "Ah, now two on one. Isn't that nice? Of course-" she covered her arm with a little bit of water as she talked-

Ty Lee watched, spellbound, as the water glowed and the disturbed energy around her injury smoothed out. She had heard that waterbenders could do that!

"-you can't both attack me at once, now can you, unless tall dark and sharp right there wants to risk skewering you, Smiles." The bender continued.

"Nice try, savage, but I can fight close range too." Mai replied, unsheathing small handled daggers.

They both rushed her. She had nowhere to go because she apparently wasn't going to leave the boy. She parried attacks with ice, but her technique wasn't mean to stay in place, it yearned to move and dodge and twist. The chink of solid water meeting metal and the sharp exhales as she lashed out with a whip to keep them at bay gradually grew in frequency until finally Ty Lee managed to hit one of her hips. She staggered, fighting to maintain balance. But once that loosened openings the acrobat quickly reached her arms. She fell onto the grass, still kicking and seething with her good foot. " _Freezing_ \- Fire- Nation-! What _is_ this, anyway! Last time I couldn't bend, and now I can't even _move?_ " She continued to rail at them.

Ty Lee opened her mouth to explain, but Mai cut her off. "Please, Ty Lee, like it's going to matter."

At that moment it felt like the waterbender had somehow frozen her insides. Her friend was fingering the knife she held, staring at the girl. "Azula did say that she was the first priority." She whispered. Her aura was shifting from color to color in indecision. First red, then dark blue, then gray, progressively blacker-

"Katara, shut up." The boy said suddenly, gazing at Mai with double her intensity. "You know if you take us a prisoners, Aang will follow you to the ends of the earth to get us back. If your friend doesn't succeed in capturing him, he'll come to you."

"Sokka, what are you d-"

"Katara." He said in a sterner but quieter voice, his beige now making way for turquoise. "Being a prisoner is much better than the alternative."

The waterbender, chastened, looked at Mai and then Ty Lee, gray seeping into the air around her, replacing the belligerent crimson.

"M-Mai, maybe we'd better just leave them. We should go help Azula, right?" The pink-clad girl asked meekly.

"Ty Lee, just go get the dragons." Mai instructed. "I'll take care of this."

The voices all collided at her statement, running over one another and ratcheting the already tense situation tighter.

"If you can only keep one of us, take her." The boy continued harshly. "She's better friends with him. More important to him."

"Now I'm going to tell _you_ to shut up, Sokka-"

'M-Mai just come on-"

"If it's going to happen i-"

"-playing hero-"

"Mai-"

Muscled coiled all around in response to the overlapping and conflicting sounds.

A sudden motion and a knife slid from a hand.

But it dropped to the ground.

"Ty Lee, what did you do that for?" Mai's normally composed voice now growled. She put a hand to her shoulder and her limp arm.

"I-I don't know." She had seen her draw back, and she had reacted.

Mai took hold of the acrobat with her still-functional arm and led her a few paces away. She said to her under her breath, "Ty Lee, I know I always tell you that you should think before you act, but this _isn't_ one of those times."

"A-are you really that scared of her, Mai?" Ty Lee asked softly. "That you would . . ."

"Scared?" Mai narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You're afraid of what Azula will do if you . . . we . . . fail . . . aren't you?"

"Of course she's scary. But don't be ridiculous, Ty. She didn't do anything to us when we 'failed' to deal with them last time."

Ty Lee wrung her hands. "I guess . . ."

"Now she definitely _would_ do something if she knew what was going on here." Mai said sardonically. "But it's not like I'm going to tell her that you tried to stop me, okay?" The green that appeared around her gave Ty Lee a small measure of reassurance.

"Hey! Maybe she doesn't buy into your whole 'rule the world' thing, Pointy!" The boy interrupted, not being able to hear their conversation.

Mai's face went blank but her aura turned an annoyed red. "I don't need some backwater smartmouth telling me about my country, thanks."

"So you're going to listen to her, then, Smiles?" The girl joined in. "Is she berating you for even _considering_ what you're doing might be wrong?"

That wasn't what was happening, was it? Ty Lee was thrown back into confusion as she looked at the still practically helpless pair. Mai was reassuring her, but for what?

Suddenly there was a roar and the two Fire Nation girls turned to see the bison barreling toward them.

"We wasted too much time. That blasted _thing_ has woken up." Mai said hurriedly, as she and Ty Lee sprinted away.

Air once again was forced out at them. Mai was lifted but Ty Lee was caught in a side eddy; she landed on the grass, crouching into a roll. There was a loud splash as the shiruken wielder landed in the river.

The beast growled at the place where Mai had been and stepped towards Ty Lee as she sat up.

When he came to a stop, he leaned over her, his warm breaths bathing her legs and waist.

This was so weird. She should at least be somewhat afraid. Her talent with animals by no means always guaranteed her safety. But the bison seemed to carry some of the boy's yellow with it, and Ty Lee, remembering the odd occurrence of the night before, was instead immediately filled with completely irrational relief.

Before she had realized what she doing, she held out a hand, palm forward. He nosed into it, as if it were perfectly natural, as if it had rested on his wide snout many times before.

"Hey Appa! Tell her to come over here and undo whatever this is!" Katara yelled exuberantly.

He pulled back and ambled to the waterbender, and looked back to Ty Lee inquiringly, as if to say, "Well, why aren't you?"

This wasn't right. She shouldn't _want_ to help them so much, should she? She kept comparing Mai's duller green to the girl's- Katara's, and wondering . . .

It was completely ironic. She had told Azula facetiously that "the universe was giving her hints" for her to join her, and yet, here it was, seeming to do the exact opposite. Mai would laugh at her. The acrobat's time at the circus had made her forget she had stopped talking about auras around her long ago.

"Come on!" The boy said impatiently.

She looked over at them. They seemed to think that their hushed conversation had involved her somehow refuting Mai on their behalf. Was some small part of her wishing it were true? She thought of all the camps they had been through. Even her friends' stolid auras had been slightly affected by the alternating dreary and high-strung atmosphere. It seemed incredible that one person could put an end to all of it. Another wave of nostalgia hit her, less intense than the one before, but still sharp.

l

_A eclectic group they were, a pink-clad thirteen year old, an old woman draped with beads and red shawls, a spry man wearing a tight-fitting vest over his bare chest, and a young woman idly fondling sparks. They were lounging on boxes, munching on sandwiches and fire flakes._

" _Did you see that old bean almost wipe out during his clown act? You'd think he would've learned by now not to trip over his own costume." Poshu shook his head._

" _I foresee a terrible fate involving a large bow tie and raspberry-apple colored pants." The gray-haired woman waggled her fingers mysteriously and her cheap rings glinted in the sunlight._

_Everyone laughed heartily at her mock-serious expression._

" _Shut up, Madame Ona. We all know you just blow hot air for the customers." Rila teased. "You led Ty Lee on for a long time. That was kinda mean, you know. She's the_ real _psychic around here." She winked at her._

_The aged fortuneteller-actress gave a toothy grin, which in actuality was missing quite a few teeth. "Ah, but they eat it up, dear. Doesn't matter if it's true or not."_

" _And besides, she doesn't have the creepy persona to match." Poshu joked._

_They continued to chat for the next hour, until the younger girls' respective rehearsals drew them apart. This was their ritual, established effortlessly. They enjoyed each others' company, whiling away their free time. They lived in the present because everything rearranged regularly. Pick up and move next week, so savor being here now._

l

In those moments, she forgot the insistent reminder letters, tucked at the back of the drawer; the most she had had to worry about was what shade of eye shadow she would wear for her next performance. Why couldn't everything just go back to being that easy?

So much had happened in a short time-

Doubt crept back into her. What if she did make that small mistake? Was she just one step away from ending up just like the men Azula had punished?

l

" _Even small mistakes can land you in deep water."_

l

Wasn't she already on thin ice for going to the circus in the first place? How much more would it take before the princess' patience wore thin? Could she willingly go back to the den of the dragon?

The girl snapped her out of her reflection. "Well? Are you just going to sit there?"

"Actually, I can't . . . _unblock_ you." Ty Lee admitted sheepishly as she stood and brushed blades of grass off of her pants.

The boy- was his name Sokka?- groaned. " _Wonder_ ful."

"Where are your other two friends?" The acrobat asked. Would Azula be able to handle the Avatar and the earthbender?

Katara frowned. "Well, one of them actually left."

"They're _both_ gone." Ty Lee looked around, confused.

"No, I mean, she left our _group._ "

"Why?"

"'Cause Katara was a total sea prune." Sokka teased.

"I was _not!_ "

"You're right, you were _more_ sour than a sea prune. I don't think the name _Sugar_ Queen does you any justice at all."

Ty Lee smiled bemusedly at their banter.

Katara growled in frustration at the gibes and took a different tack. "Well, I guess Aang should be able to find us, right?"

"Is he the yellow one?"

Sokka chuckled. "Well, his _skin_ 's not yellow."

Ty Lee shook her head. "Oh, no, sorry, slip of the tongue. I meant that he has a yellow aura. A _really bright_ one."

At their confused looks Ty Lee chewed on her lower lip. Would they believe her? "See, auras are-"

"Gran-Gran used to tell us stories about people who could see them." Katara said thoughtfully.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Mmm. Do they always match people's clothes?"

Ty Lee laughed. "No. But I like the color pink because I like the way I feel whenever my aura's bright pink."

An unspoken communication flew from the girl to her brother. "You don't believe her." She accused aloud. Ty Lee then recognized the sardonic tone of his previous question and the incredulity on his face. Well, this wasn't the first time someone hadn't believed her, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Though something about this case particularly made her aura teeter on the edge of a dim, doleful blue.

"No, I tend to suspend belief until sufficient proof is presented-"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Sokka, _really._ Please excuse him. He's a bullpig-headed-"

"-guy who believes in scientific inquiry!" He interrupted in an annoyed whine.

The waterbender ignored him. "So what color are ours?" she asked, interested in Ty Lee again.

The acrobat stepped towards her, drawn in by her warm reception. "Well yours is a simply _gorgeous_ shade of green."

"What does that mean?"

"It's the color of an especially nurturing and caring person." Ty Lee said admiringly, aura pinking again. "And I think it might be especially intense because you're a healer."

"And what about mister non-bender, here?" Katara asked.

Sokka huffed.

"You're dominant color is turquoise. But right now it's _dark_ green- who are you jealous of?"

Katara snickered and Sokka looked at her with a scowl and narrowed eyes, and said sarcastically, "Well this has been a nice chat, _dearest_ sister-"

No wonder their interaction seemed so familiar. They were siblings. Ty Lee almost giggled again at the thought of her sisters. Whether in Meili's house or her parent's house in the Unshiri Province during the summers off from school, she could always expect several sets of back-and-forth like this.

"-but we need to figure out who we're going to go after. Ty Lee," Sokka said, beige ousting the green, "did the third girl-"

"Azula."

"-did she follow Aang?"

She nodded.

They exchanged nervous glances. "Surely he wouldn't stay and fight her in his condition?" Katara asked worriedly, now copying her brother by rolling upright, trying to flex her paralyzed leg.

"I don't want to chance it." Sokka took on his solemn, commanding voice again. " _Toph's_ not in any danger that we know of. But we need to make sure Aang's all right."

"Oh!" Ty Lee's face lit up. "There it is again. Turquoise. The sign of a good leader."

Sokka paused only for a moment before tentatively smiling at her.

Now that the acrobat had a close-up look at Sokka, she noticed something she hadn't before. Peoples' primary energy, that traveled along their trunk, usually moved upwards, exiting the top of their head. But she could almost say that a little bit more chi was being let off than was in his body. What in the world did that mean?

"What are you staring at?" He asked.

She blushed slightly. That hadn't been the only reason she liked looking at him. She tried to describe the phenomenon.

"Well, I don't know-" he began-

A small animal zipped over to him and landed on his shoulder. "Hey, pfft- Momo! Get your tail out of my face!"

"Awww! What a cute lemur-bat."

"You know what he is?" Katara asked.

"Well, yeah. They have them at the circus. Come here, sweety." She rubbed her fingers together invitingly.

He raised his ears and looked to Appa.

The bison chuffed encouragingly.

"Oh!" She exclaimed as he glided forward, taking hold of her offered wrist and agily climbing up her arm. He reached out and tugged gently at one side of the loose bangs of her hair with puzzled concentration, as if he were trying to determine what it was doing covering her forehead.

Sokka stood shakily. "I think I can get around now. Ty Lee, will you help me with Katara? We need to get moving as fast as possible."

"You ready to fly, Appa? Even if we aren't quite?" Katara asked.

The bison gave a loud affirmative grunt.

Ty Lee looked back to the river one last time. Was she going to go through with this?

She stood determinately, and the lemur took off from her shoulder, landing on one of the bison's horns. He made a gurgling assessment and the bison murmured back in agreement, sealing their sanction of the newcomer.

Ty Lee and Sokka each held Katara under an arm and placed her on Appa's tail and he lifted them obligingly. Even with that assistance, it was a struggle to get her over into the saddle, but they managed it.

"Yip yip!" Despite his enthusiastic response to Katara's exhortation, Appa took off wearily.

"He must be really, really tired. His chi is so sluggish." Ty Lee leaned over the saddle and stroked the soft white fur. It was still a little damp.

Katara gazed curiously at her. "You can see that in his aura?"

"Does Appa even _have_ an aura?" Sokka asked. Appa groaned, as if in protest.

Ty Lee nodded. "Oh, yes. Animal's auras aren't quite as pronounced as peoples'." Momo hopped up onto her lap and she began to pet him. "But they are definitely there."

"So, um, Ty Lee, that thing about being a turquoise leader- you weren't just making that up?" Sokka's brow furrowed with uncertainty.

Ty Lee blinked. "Of course not. Turquoise is very different from orange, which is what Azula is."

"What?"

"Both of them are commonly found in leaders. Orange means you want to control people and have power. But turquoise means you want to organize and direct people, and look out for them. That's what Auntie Ryu always told me."

Sokka beamed and coaxed Appa on with the reigns.

* * *

They soared over the landscape, and even from a distance they could spot the tiny blue flames sharply contrasting with the orange of the rock.

"Looks like there are buildings down there." Katara squinted, now shaking her still-tingling arms and fingers.

"An abandoned town." Sokka observed. Beige now appeared around him.

"What was he _thinking_ , fighting her? He should have just flown away." The concern in her voice was matched by the enhancing of her emerald aura.

The blue flames increased in size as they go closer. Ty Lee's own aura was rapidly turning from pink to gray.

"We need to keep Appa out of sight." Sokka turned the huge head and his aura mingled between turquoise and beige. The combination of taking charge and strategizing. "He's too tired- he'll be in danger."

Appa landed and collapsed on the dusty ground.

"C-can I stay here?" Ty Lee stammered.

" _What?_ You need to _help_ us if you're going to stay with-" Katara started-

" _Seriously_ , Katara, are you going to start lecturing people again about 'pulling their own weight,' after Toph?" Sokka cut her off. "Let's just _go_. Aang needs us."

Katara quickly shut off whatever snappy response she had planned at the mention of Aang's name and the two siblings ran between buildings.

Appa was already snoring softly as they left.

Ty Lee patted his back. "That's right, get some rest." She said smoothly. She strained her ears to hear any clue of what was going on. What sound might have echoed in the empty place was drowned out by the roaring of fire.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion and Appa started to his feet, tossing her from the saddle. She landed on her hands and in a half-handspring was upright again.

Appa rumbled apologetically.

"That's all right. You just can't get a break, can you, buddy?" She said seriously. She ran down an alley and peeked around the edge of a building to see what had happened.

She saw several figures, many different heights, one on the ground and one kneeling. She squinted, then closed her eyes, getting a reading on each of them. She confirmed that Azula wasn't there. One was Sokka, one was Katara, one she didn't recognize and two-

Her eyes opened in surprise as an arc of firebending shot out of the kneeling figure. Could that really be-

She jogged out towards them.

"Katara, look out!" A voice shouted and an earth column came out of nowhere, sending her sprawling.

"Toph, no, she's on our side!" Katara said back to the earthbender.

"What?"

"It's fine, Toph." She repeated, coming to Ty Lee. "You okay?"

"Katara, you really need to get over here, more." Toph insisted, taking a step back towards Iroh, who had not long before been serving her tea.

"I-I told you to just _go_." Zuko mumbled as he stood defensively, legs spread apart.

"Don't be an _idiot._ " Toph snapped, sinking into a stance in response, glaring at the ground.

Flames spurted at his fists. "Say that to my _face._ "

Her blind seafoam eyes turned upwards. "I don't know _who you are_ , but if you care about him anywhere _near_ as much as he cares about you, you'll _**let**_ _the_ _ **damn**_ _waterbender_ _ **heal**_ _him._ "

Zuko blinked rapidly, utterly dumbfounded at the _complete_ stranger's discerning words, and the flames winked out.

Katara brought her water to her hands and made a silent questioning gesture. He nodded hesitantly and hovered over her as she knelt and the water glowed.

Ty Lee was completely oblivious to all of the conversation, and she was beginning to tremble. Sokka noticed her reaction and asked, "Ty Lee? Are you all right?"

She shook her head, now swaying unsteadily.

He rushed to her and took hold of her wrists. "Ty Lee, _what's wrong_?"

She managed to get the words out in a strangled whisper before she fainted.

"Z-Z-Zuko's au-aura."


	3. Shame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think it's funny how much the Avatar characters don't know about each other. I mean, think about it as you read. The series pretty much operated off of the audience's knowledge of the characters. That doesn't mean I think that the show should have rehashed stuff, not at all, but it is interesting to think about the characters' reactions. And I wonder why Jee didn't know Zuko's story, after being on a ship with him for THREE YEARS!- perhaps I'll explore that later.
> 
> And as you read, please remember the point Zuko is at in the second season. What if the Gaang had to try and convince THAT Zuko to join them then? I think you'll appreciate the reversal of roles for one character especially. . . . So get ready for angst. (interspersed with a little humor, don't worry)

"'Zuko had shown shameful weakness. As punishment he was banished and sent to capture the Avatar. Only then could he return with his honor.'

'So that's why he's so obsessed. Capturing the Avatar is the only chance he has of things returning to normal.'" –Iroh and Lieutenant Jee

" _Azula, what's going on? Mai isn't here today, and everyone's saying . . ." the eleven-year-old peered fearfully around the lawn of the Academy at the groups of students, who were clustered unusually tightly together, indicating that hot new gossip had taken root over the weekend. All eyes had been on the princess as she arrived, but no one was brave enough to approach her, and certainly not ask for conformation. "Everyone's saying something happened to Zuko," she continued plaintively, " . . . Is it . . . is it true . . . ?" She clung to the princess' arm._

" _Ty Lee, please." Azula said impatiently as she pried her unwanted grip off._

_The princess faced her hungry-eyed peers and with all the poise of a royal proclaimed loudly, "Prince Zuko is indeed leaving the Fire Nation, as soon as he is able. He has disrespected the Firelord and has been duly punished. I expect not to be bothered about details," she finished crisply._

_There were several noddings and quiet acknowledgements at her word, and the groups migrated towards the white marble entrance to the main building. As multiple conversations started simultaneously, an eruption of sound flowed through the air and clattered off the hard polished surfaces of the inside. She continued to herself in a normal voice as she rolled her eyes, "No doubt I'll have to say something similar at the Boy's Academy tomorrow."_

_Ty Lee stood, bewildered. "Why?"_

" _Does it matter? This means I will be Firelord."_

" _W-well yeah, but Mai-"_

" _You don't want me to be Firelord?" Azula narrowed her eyes._

" _O-of course!" Ty Lee squeaked. "You're the smartest person in either of the schools- you know Yunru is so jealous of you."_

" _Really?" Azula said, distracted at the mention of Ty Lee's next oldest sister. "She doesn't act like it."_

_Ty Lee nodded her head vigorously. "But she still likes you a lot, really. You know people can still like you even if-"_

_Azula started after the rest of the students, obviously expecting Ty Lee to follow her as she usually did and continue her sycophantic babble._

" _B-but wait . . ." Ty Lee said timidly as she jogged after her. "Why does Zuko have to go? You can be Firelord anyway, right?"_

_"Pick up the pace or we're going to be late for class."_

" _I mean, Master Iroh has been here while . . . the Firelord is in charge . . ." she trailed off uncertainly._

 _Azula rubbed at her temples._ " _You are so naïve, Ty Lee."_

l

Ty Lee hung somewhere between the sea of unconsciousness and the sky of awareness for a moment as real voices reached her ears.

"Zuko, I'm asking you to try and let go of your shame." It was familiar. Something about blue . . .

"But I don't feel any shame at all! I'm as proud as ever." Her thoughts wavered at the sound of the anger.

"Prince Zuko, pride is not the opposite of shame, but it's source. True humility is the only antidote to shame."

"Well, my life has been nothing _but_ humbling lately."

There was a pause.

"Why do you treat them as if they are friends, uncle?"

"They _are_ friends, Zuko."

" _What are you talking about?_ How can you say that?"

"Zuko, you've _seen_ what this war has done to the Earth Kingdom. You _know_ that it is right to help the Avatar."

Heat beat at her face and Ty Lee's eyes fluttered open in alarm. "Wha-" She saw fire and she yelled as she closed her eyes again and threw up her arms defensively, heart hammering.

"Ty Lee?" Iroh put a hand to her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

She quickly scanned the decrepit building. "The- f-fire-"

"As you know, my nephew tends to overreact." Iroh sighed, settling next to her. "I believe it has gotten significantly worse since you have seen him. I'm sorry you had to awaken to such a display."

She blinked wearily. "What- where am I? Is that you, Master Iroh?"

The old man chuckled. "Please, I've told you before to just call me Iroh."

He met her eyes and she sucked in a small, awed breath as his aura turned from bright blue to white.

"You always did have a strong connection to the Spirit World." He observed.

"And so do you." She had only met one other person before who could produce a white aura- Auntie Ryu's father. It was still something that amazed her. It seemed to make her heart jump of its own accord.

"I met a young woman recently who did as well." He looked away and rested his head back against the wall. "She was very brave." He whispered reminiscently. "I suppose _that's_ why they trust me, even though they _shouldn't_ , by any means. Because I stood up for her."

Ty Lee raised her gaze to his. "They? The Avatar and his friends are still here?"

"Of course. They wouldn't leave you behind."

"They only _just_ met me."

Iroh smiled kindly. "I think you have read them well enough to know that they form bonds quickly." He turned back to her. "I've asked Zuko to join the Avatar. But . . ." He paused. "As you may have realized, good is easier to see for some-" he tilted his head knowingly at her- "and harder to see for others. And my nephew has a particularly heavy handicap."

She looked down and began to fiddle with her braid anxiously. " _Three years_ , Master Iroh? _Three years_ he's been like this?" She implored the old man quietly.

Iroh's aura shifted to a dark shade of blue. "Yes."

"Then you can see-" she faltered- "h-how twisted up his energy is?"

"Not in the same way you can, but I've been with him far too long to _not_ understand."

He gave a tortured sigh. "I fear being around the Avatar like this is crushing his spirit even more. The boy is within reach, but there is nothing he can do to get him back to the Fire Nation. He feels so powerless."

"Ty Lee!" Katara poked her head through the doorway. "You're awake!"

"Yeah." She said tiredly.

"Good, 'cause we were just about to make dinner. Can you make us a fire, sir?"

Iroh got stiffly to his feet with a popping of old joints. "Of course. And how many times do I have to _tell_ everyone they can just call me _Iroh_?" he said in a jovial voice.

Katara smiled awkwardly. "I'll try." She walked to Ty Lee and warmly offered the girl a hand to help her up.

"Where did Zuko go?" Ty Lee asked.

"That way, I think."

Ty Lee followed her direction, walking through the maze of buildings and closing her eyes periodically to cast out for his chi. Finally she sensed him and recoiled internally at what she encountered.

"Zuko?" She said quietly, rounding the corner of what used to be a barber shop.

"So you helped them?" He asked gruffly, standing and facing her confrontationally.

She ignored his question and rushed to him, flinging her arms around his stiff, surprised torso and burying her cheek into his chest. "Zuko! I can't believe it's really you! You know I never thought I would see you again after-" she stopped, pulling back just enough to look into his troubled eyes.

They both looked away and there was a long silence as she released him and placed a hand just above her elbow, gripping her arm awkwardly.

"My uncle and I are leaving as soon as possible." He whispered.

"What? Why?" She asked, almost pleading.

"You know why. I can't be here, with the Avatar- this- this is just too screwed up." He ran his hands across his newly-grown short hair.

"I could almost say the same thing." She chuckled half-heartedly. "But at the same time-"

"GUYS! Dinner!" Katara shouted.

"Will you at least come and eat?" She asked teasingly.

The response, a doleful, pained gaze, took her smile away.

* * *

As it got dark, the whole group sat around the fire, except for one.

"Zuko, _please_ come and join us." Iroh called to his nephew, who had set up a separate fire farther off.

"No."

Toph pointed her arm towards Zuko and in a sweeping motion moved the earth under him. He zipped towards the bigger fire and came to rest next to Iroh. They both blinked in surprise.

Toph resumed eating nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened, but a smirk played around her mouth.

"Want some, Ty Lee?" Sokka offered her the leg of a jackalope he had caught.

She pressed her lips together at the sight of the mostly intact limb, trying not to imagine the creature it had belonged to. "Oh, I-I don't think so, sorry."

"Still a little woozy?" He asked kindly.

"Well, yeah, maybe I am . . . but I'm a vegetarian."

"Really? Me too!" Aang grinned.

"Are you _serious?_ " Sokka waved his arms above his head. "I still can't wrap my mind around this concept of _no meat_."

"Well, when I joined the circus I had to begin eating meat again occasionally because you never knew _what_ you were going to get on the road," she admitted in embarrassment. "But since I've been with Azula she's provided me with what I need."

"That's good of her." Aang chirped happily as he dug into an assortment of nuts and passed some to Ty Lee. "You can always find _something_ to like about someone."

"You always are the one to look for the best in people, Aang." Katara rolled her eyes, but smiled at him affectionately.

The voice of the prince cut into the light-hearted conversation like a rusty knife. "And while you're busy looking for the _best_ in her, she'll shoot you through the heart with lightning."

There was a strained silence.

"This is just too weird." Katara said softly as she shook her head. "For so long, when I've pictured the face of the enemy, it was your face."

Zuko stood swiftly, dropping his half-eaten bread on the ground. "Yeah, it kinda gets stuck in your memory, _doesn't it_?"

Katara's eyes went wide and a hand went to her mouth. "No, no, that's not what I meant-"

But he was gone before she had finished her sentence.

Sokka stared after him, a half nibbled leg poised and mouth open. Then he turned to his sister. "Wow, Katara. _Nice_."

"I didn't . . ." she put a hand to her forehead- "mean it like that- it's just-"

"I think it is time you all learned about my nephew's affliction." Iroh said solemnly.

"Affliction? That sounds like present tense. That looks like a very old burn." Sokka observed.

"Trust me when I say, that there is still pain there that's every bit as real as the day the fire touched his skin." Iroh replied morosely.

Ty Lee took a rattling breath. "I can- _see_ it." She whispered. "I've never encountered a hue of red like his. And it extends so far out from his body, it's like it isn't even a part of him. And his chi is blocked up around-" she closed her eyes and put her hand to the left side of her face- "and around his throat and stomach." She moved her palm to the respective places.

Iroh nodded sadly. "Yes, I believe what you are seeing are his chakras."

"Chakras?" Katara asked.

"They are pools of energy in the body, that can be blocked by various emotional turbulence." Iroh explained. "And as I said, it is time you all knew what happened to him."

They all waited patiently as Iroh shifted into a more comfortable position and took a deep breath. He had told the same story to Zuko's crew a few months before.

His resonant voice wove a terrible spell. Ty Lee and Katara wore similar bereaved expressions as he talked, though one was fresh while the other one was more hollow with resignation.

"He knelt before his father in the arena. I still remember his words as clear as day. ' _I only have the Fire Nation's best interests at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn. I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son. I won't fight you._ '"

"But my brother was not deterred. That's when he-" he stopped, unable to continue.

"When he what?" A small voice broke the large silence. Toph had sensed the understanding tension that had gone around the circle.

Everyone's heads turned to her.

"That's right." Sokka said wonderingly. "You haven't- seen his face."

Toph _made_ a face. "Yeah, I've never seen _anything_ , Genius."

Nervous glances flitted around in all directions.

"A-around his eye." Katara started bravely, "He has a really bad burn."

"Apparently inflicted by his father at this- what did you call it, Agni Kai?" Sokka asked Iroh.

Iroh's mouth tightened. "If it can even be called that."

Toph blew some hair out of her face and crossed her arms. "So _that's_ why he was so annoyed about the comment about his face. You sighted people put a lot of stock in faces, don't you?"

"Could you for _once_ in your life be a little sensitive, Toph?" Katara demanded. "It's not just about the scar, it's about how his father treated him. Your parents didn't _send_ you away. You came because you _wanted_ to."

Toph drew herself up in outrage. "Believe it or not, I _do_ understand, Queeny! If my father were powerful enough to crack a couple of my ribs, I'd be horrified if he actually _did_ it." Broken ribs were the most common injury among earthbenders. She leaned back again once she had effectively crushed that tangent and questioned, "So he has a ponytail, and a burn on his face?"

Sokka laughed nervously, remembering his comment to her about an 'angry freak with a ponytail.' "Actually, he's cut his hair now- and grown some out." He told her.

"That's very descriptive, thanks." Toph remarked sarcastically.

"The topknots we wore were Fire Nation hairstyles." Iroh offered. "They shaved his head to treat the burn," he paused - "And when it began to grow back he cut it again, saying that he would wear it that way as long as he was banished."

"Kinda self-abasing, isn't it?" Sokka said sadly, unconsciously running his hand down his head towards his own 'wolftail.' "You know, I could technically grow mine out now," he commented, "since I've finished the ice dodging ritual. But I don't want to until I've done it with-"

"-dad." Katara finished for him, meeting his eyes and smiling encouragingly.

There was a pause and many of them resumed eating.

"So wait a second," Toph said incredulously. "What kind of crazy Nation do you guys run? Zuko was _banished_ just because he spoke out of turn?"

"Well, no, not technically. He was banished and ordered to remain marked for refusing to fight. It was a very harsh punishment. Uncalled for. And I should have-" Iroh drew a sudden, defiant breath and the campfire swelled. Ty Lee latched onto to Katara in surprise, turning her face away. The waterbender patted her arm reassuringly as he let the air out slowly and ground his teeth together. The fire gradually returned to normal. ". . . well, . . . His father gave him an impossible task- to capture the Avatar."

"It's not _nearly_ as impossible as we'd _like_ it to be." Sokka joked with a wry expression.

Iroh chuckled darkly. "It was years ago, before he appeared."

They all turned to the one in question. Aang was the only one who hadn't yet said anything. The nomad's only motion since Iroh's awful narrative had been to wipe a single angry tear that slid down his cheek. He hadn't touched any more of his food either.

"I believe-" Iroh began, reigning their attention back in, "the chakras you sensed in Zuko, Ty Lee, were the Fire chakra and the Truth chakra."

Iroh laid a hand on his stomach. "The Fire chakra is the source of energy. Firebenders are most attuned to it. It deals with power, and is blocked by shame."

He raised his chin and pressed his fingers into his beard. "The Truth chakra, in the throat, is blocked by lies."

Aang suddenly stood and strode away, his face still drawn and serious.

"Let him go." Iroh put a hand up to stop Katara, who had risen in concern.

* * *

"Zuko?"

Zuko was sitting with his knees to his chest. He shifted his head away from the young airbender.

"What do you want?" he said in an utterly defeated tone.

"Your uncle- told us about what happened."

Zuko closed his eyes.

"I want you to know- that it's not your shame to bear."

"What?" Zuko turned his head, only the scar showing, and the damaged eye fixed Aang in its gaze.

"I never met my father, Zuko. But I met other children in the other Nations: I think I mentioned Kuzon to you once. I saw their fathers were the same to them as Monk Gyatso was to me. Gyatso was, in effect, my father."

"A father is a loving, nurturing person. A person that will support you no matter what. Who wants the best for you. And the man that Iroh described to us, _he doesn't_ _ **deserve**_ _to be called your father_." Aang's grip tightened on his staff.

Zuko's single golden eye was still.

" _He_ should be ashamed of what he did. To take everything he was supposed to be and throw it all away. He hasn't _earned_ the title, Zuko. So there shouldn't be _anything_ in you that desires his approval _or_ his acknowledgement."

" _He_ should be the one begging _your_ forgiveness. _The shame isn't yours, Zuko_." He repeated. "It's _his_."

Silence. The eye held Aang for a long time before turning away again.


	4. Earthbending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think after all the angst we are in definite need of some fluff. Once again, Appa and Momo might be the most fun characters to write.

"Sorry, _Snoozles_. We'll do our earthbending as quietly as we can." –Toph

When Ty Lee woke the next day, she noticed that Aang was already up. The rest of their group was sleeping peacefully.

She stepped quietly, stretching her arms behind her back and heard Iroh snoring softly. Zuko was nowhere to be seen either. She remembered Azula saying something about firebenders always rising with the sun. She smiled at the retired general. Maybe not old firebenders.

She walked out of the old abandoned streets, meaning to find a place to do some warm up exercises, but then she spotted Aang, sitting cross-legged on the dry, flat ground.

She drew in a long, careful, silent breaths, not wanting to disturb him. She didn't know how long she stood there, simply watching. His aura was _golden_. It competed for brilliance with the rising sun in front of him. Much of his chi flowed seamlessly in and out of his surroundings and-

" _Hey Twinkle-Toes!"_

The aura chafed red as the boundaries of his body were yanked back into place.

"Are you ready to be an earthbender?"

" _Yes,_ Toph." He said with exaggerated patience as his normal yellow hue returned.

"I'm coming, too!" Katara shouted as she braided her hair.

"Whatever props up your mining shaft." Toph said.

Ty Lee wanted to go, but she had something to do first. She watched them depart and then set out to find Zuko again. She found him sitting on the ground alone, just as Aang had been, though his energy was nowhere near as peaceful. Apparently the monk could rebound from a night like the last one, and deliberately so, but the prince was having difficulty.

"Come on, Zuko. I know what you need!" Ty Lee flashed a wide grin at him as she grabbed his arm and tugged. "You need to come ride Appa."

"Stop it, Ty Lee."

"Come on, I'm not just going to let you sit here and stew."

He continued to resist.

"Don't make me block your chi."

He growled and let her pull him along.

"Sokka!" she called. "Sokka!"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Appa?"

"Over here. I think he's feeling a lot better." The boy kept a straight face. She had told him about her plan.

Ty Lee nodded. "Yep, his chi is churning up a storm now."

The bison turned his head towards them as they approached but did not make his usual welcoming sound. He showed his teeth at the prince and took a step backwards with three of his legs.

"No, Appa." Ty Lee chided him. She laid a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "You've got to give off some positive energy." She informed him.

Zuko's face folded in annoyance.

"That's not positive."

"I know there's gotta be some in there somewhere." Sokka wheedled.

If there had not been a huge furry monster within striking distance Zuko probably would have started yelling and flaming. As it was, he just said, "If it doesn't want me to ride it, then . . ." He tried to wrench free of Ty Lee's grip.

"It is a he. His name is Appa. Try introducing yourself."

"Are you _serious_?"

"I'm one hundred percent serious." She said cheerfully.

" _Appa_ , is it?" The bovine snorted contentiously in response. "Well, you really have no reason to trust me, now, do you? I've chased you across the entire world. And you have been the _biggest_ pain ever."

The corny reference wasn't intended as a joke, but Ty Lee and Sokka snickered just the same.

The lemur was resting on the huge bison's head, watching the proceedings passively.

"What about you, Momo?" Ty Lee appealed to him. She brought a forearm up and he alighted on it.

Momo stared at Zuko for several seconds and then chirped at him.

Zuko stared back.

Momo made the noise again.

"Hold out your hand." Ty Lee told him.

Zuko raised his hand, palm down. The lemur sniffed it, then examined it carefully from all angles, glancing from his knuckles to his face. He folded his large ears backwards and cautiously brought his head under the hand, pressing up against his fingers. Zuko moved them hesitantly over the short fur, and Momo purred and rubbed against him, ears coming back up with confidence.

The lemur then turned to the bison and twittered at him. He growled defensively.

Momo leapt down and came to rest in front of the bison's face, admonishing him with increased volume and urgency, tiny arms flailing in emphasis. The bison finally moaned resignedly and took a large step towards Zuko. The teenager's body went rigid and his face went from surprised to afraid very fast as the towering beast loomed and came to rest inches from him, examining him with one critical brown eye. The bison then faced him head on, and blew a gust of air through his nose, as if still unimpressed, but acquiescent.

"Well, now that we have that settled," Ty Lee nodded. She sprang up to the bison's saddle with much less ease than Aang, but achieved it nonetheless. "Come on!" She waved to the two boys.

Appa turned and lay down so that the less nimble pair could clamber up his side.

He pushed off with his tail and they rose, the landscape folding out beneath them. There were a few sparse clouds, and they threw their slight shadows over the marble mish-mash of hard rock and soft green.

"This is how you travel all the time." Zuko said pensively, gazing out into the expanse.

"Yep. You get used to it." Sokka said with a smile. "But it never ceases to be amazing."

They flew around for a short time, and then heard yelling echoing off the geologic formations.

"Keep your knees high, Twinkle-Toes!"

"Sounds like Toph's putting Aang through the ringer." Sokka squinted down.

Ty Lee leaned over the saddle. "Can we go see?"

Sokka shrugged and steered Appa downwards.

"-Instead of _moving_ a rock, you're going to _stop_ a rock." Toph was saying. "Get in your horse stance!" She bellowed.

Aang obliged.

"I'm going to roll that boulder down at you." She pointed up to a cliff with a "slide" carved into it.

"If you have the attitude of an earthbender, you'll stay in your stance and stop the rock. Like this." She demonstrated a motion with her hands flat.

Then she moved up the steep outcropping with the help of carved steppes, pushing herself upward with thrusts of earth under her feet.

Ty Lee was gripping Sokka's shoulder tightly, one fist held at her mouth. "What is it?' He asked her.

"Aang's really afraid." She said.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He is the Avatar, after all."

She nodded fearfully.

Toph rolled the boulder down at him, and it rumbled menacingly down the canyon wall. Just as it reached him, Aang dodged into the air.

Toph came stomping down the cliff and Ty Lee winced.

Aang looked down at the ground in shame. "I guess I just panicked. I'm sorry."

Toph prodded him in the chest and he fell to the ground.

"Yeah, you _are_ sorry. If you're not tough enough to _stop_ the rock, then you could at _least_ give it the pleasure of _smushing_ you instead of _jumping_ out of the way like a jelly-boned-"

" _To-oph_ , stop being so _meeeean._ " Ty Lee interrupted girlishly. "The blue is worse than the gray." She said to herself. "I think I've seen something that will help. Earthbenders draw their power from the base of the back." Ty Lee explained as she put a hand to her bare skin of the spot. "When people are afraid, their aura turns gray, and their chi concentrates around there. When you're fighting, Aang, the chi diffuses into the air. But when Toph fights-" Ty Lee gestured to the little girl- "the chi in her back channels down her legs and into the ground."

Katara gasped excitedly. "Of course! _Fight_ or _flight_!" She nodded. "Aang, Earth is the opposite of Air. Toph's right. They're different attitudes, and Ty Lee says they're different movements of energy, too."

"Try focusing on moving the chi from your _back_ into the earth." Ty Lee advised, walking away from them.

"And for goodness sake, think about _standing your ground_." Toph braided.

"All right." Aang bent his knees again and closed his eyes, trying to get a feel for the flow. He stood there for a few minutes before starting- "Okay, now what do I-"

Without warning Ty Lee came at him in a dead sprint and he raised a hand, a column of earth intercepting her. She skirted around it and another one rose beneath her, flinging her ten feet into the air. She landed on one of the nearby outcroppings. " _There_ you go! Your chi reacted to the attack almost like hers would have."

"Awesome!" Toph pumped a fist in the air. "Those _were_ some pretty _sloppy_ moves," she said, referring to his impromptu reactions. "But there's no doubt: You're an earthbender, Twinkle-Toes!"

A wide grin spread across Aang's face.

"Whoohoo! I'm-" Aang gathered himself up- "an _earthbender!_ " He sprang from place to place eagerly, ricocheting lightly off of various rock projections as Toph shook her head, smiling in amusement. "What are you doing? You've got to keep contact with the ground."

"He's just so excited." Ty Lee giggled, his mood thoroughly infectious. She cartwheeled across the ledge she was on and jumped up down to a shorter rocky platform. "Sometimes you just have to _let it out!_ " She dove and flipped, one foot catching another narrow ledge before propelling herself upward again.

"Hey, that's pretty good!" Aang called, perched higher up, laughing.

Toph crossed her arms. "Great, just _great_ , it looks like we have _another_ Twinkle-Toes on our hands."


	5. Good Vibrations

"Even though I was born blind, I've never had a problem seeing." –Toph

Aang's earthbending instructor 'watched' her pupil and his bubbly cohort hop from place to place, allowing them their time to revel. After all, he had worked very hard today. But after a while she shouted up at her, "You're making me dizzy disappearing and reappearing on your hands like that, you know! Usually people just stay on their feet!"

Ty Lee nimbly stepped down to her level. "Sorry. Wait . . . what?"

"Toph," Aang said as he floated down after, "She doesn't know how you see."

"Oh, right. Well, here's the way it works, Twinkle-Toes number two. I feel vibrations in the earth through my feet."

"So you can't see someone when they're in the air?"

"No. But as you could guess, I've gotten pretty good at judging angles. And making a rock wall doesn't exactly require rat-viper strike precision." She paused. "And I can see earth when it's airborne."

"And you can see Katara standing next to you?"

"Yep."

"Even though she's not moving? Not sending any vibrations?"

"I can see her heartbeat and her breathing. It's enough."

Ty Lee cocked her head curiously. "How far away can you see people?"

Toph put a hand to her neck and rotated it lazily. "Oh, I dunno, if I really concentrated maybe a few miles."

Ty Lee's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You can feel someone's _heartbeat_ from _miles away_?"

Toph blinked for a minute. "Well, no . . ." She rubbed the hand at her neck, thinking. "Peoples' heartbeats fade when they get further away. After that, I can just- feel them."

"Even when they're standing still."

Toph nodded.

"So what vibrations would you be sensing?" Katara asked, puzzled.

Ty Lee put her hand to her chin, smiling thoughtfully. "Their form is still. But something inside them still moves, doesn't it?'

"Yeah. That's kinda right."

Ty Lee nodded. "I think you're sensing chi."

Aang slapped a hand to his forehead. "Of _course!_ Toph, you once said that you could feel ants walking."

"Yeah."

"There's _no way_ they could _physically_ move the earth enough for you to pick up on it. Ty Lee's right. You're sensing chi, too. Everyone is connected to the earth when they contact it- so you're able to read it through your bending. And _you're_ able to see chi, too, then?" Aang asked the acrobat. "But with your eyes?"

Ty Lee tilted her head. "Well, _auras_ I can only see with my eyes. But chi- well, I don't . . . _see_ it exactly. If I close my eyes-" she did so and frowned slightly- "I still can place where it is. I can piece together a picture of things."

"Just like Toph."

"Though I don't think I have the range she does." She studied her again. "Earthbenders probably appear the most vivid to you, right? They're the easiest to read?"

"No. They're the same as everyone else."

"Oh. That just must be something I can do, then. I can see bending centers in all of you." She looked around at them. "Except Sokka, of course."

Sokka ducked his head in annoyance.

Aang stretched. "Well, it's starting to get dark, Toph, so I think we should head back."

"I thought it was getting slightly colder." She replied.

Aang bowed to her. "Thank you for today, sifu." And then he turned to the acrobat and smiled. "And sifu Ty Lee."

She laughed. "No problem."

"Hey everybody, we brought Appa." Sokka gestured up to him. "If you want to fly back."

"You know I'm better walking." Toph said, demonstrating her opinion by setting off on her own.

Aang bounced over to Zuko. "So Appa let you ride him?"

The teen looked down at him for a second. "Um . . . yeah."

Aang smiled. "That's great!" He sauntered over to his large friend. He rubbed his head and crooned, "You're such a good bison." He swirled onto Appa's back and gestured for everyone to get on.

Katara and Zuko climbed up to the saddle, but Ty Lee grabbed Sokka's arm. "Could you walk back with me?" She asked him.

Sokka glanced up to Aang and then back to her. "Sure."

Appa rose and Ty Lee and Sokka started after him. Toph was already far in front in front of them.

"I'm sorry about the comment about your chi." Ty Lee said penitently, clasping her hands behind her back.

"It's fine."

"Not according to your aura, it isn't."

Sokka glared sideways at her.

"I'm not a bender either, you know."

"Yeah, but you still have _pow-ers._ " He said goofily, waggling his fingers back and forth.

She giggled and he smiled at her reaction.

"And you can do that-" he made imitative jabs with his hands.

"Well, you could learn that, too. You'd just have to do it-"

"' _Blind?_ '" He made air-quotes with his hands, moving his head equally as goofily.

She giggled again. His expression was so _precious_. "Yeah."

"Wouldn't be the fist time I learned to fight from a girl." Sokka muttered dejectedly.

"What?"

"Oh, um, nothing."

Ty Lee puzzled for a moment at the sudden tumult in his energy, but then continued with what she really wanted to say. "Thanks for ganging up with me on Zuko." She said seriously. "To think he use to turn my aura dark green-" she shook her head.

Sokka turned to her in surprise. "Did you just say you were-" he stuck a finger in his ear and twisted. "- _jealous_ of Zuko?"

Ty Lee sighed. "Mai was the first person I was really friends with, Sokka. And you know why? Because I saw her aura, and I wanted to make it brighter. But you know what always turned her aura the pinkest? When Zuko smiled at her." Ty Lee admitted. "That's all it took. I would spend time with her, go to theater shows, train with her. But the thing that always improved her aura the most, was Zuko."

"When I met her, I knew that a strong aura could help a person. But it works the other way around, too. When Zuko left, I could feel her draining on me during that year. I hated to leave her like that, when we graduated, and yet, at the same time, I desperately wanted to." Ty Lee stared up into the darkening sky.

She glanced over at Sokka to see a troubled expression looking straight ahead. "What?"

"It's just . . . I feel sorry for the guy, don't get me wrong. But I can't shake the feeling that the only reason Zuko's putting up with all of this is that he wants to figure out a way to get Aang. We're staying with him because his uncle has asked us to, but I'm just not sure."

Though he couldn't know it, Toph's expression had changed at his overheard words.


	6. Confronting the Dragon's Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no. Back in on the angst. Don't shoot me. Virtual cookies to whoever can guess why I gave Zuko this nickname. (and not for the obvious reason- *hint hint: it's something about his voice) Toko fanservice ahoy. Toph can always make angst funny.

"Your nephew is very lucky. Even if he doesn't know it." –Toph to Iroh

Once Toph got back she could feel that once again, Zuko had found a spot to sit by himself, away from the others.

"Those two Twinkle-Toes are pretty kooky, aren't they?"

He didn't say anything.

"All the talk of positive energy, and to me they were really just annoying." She tried again.

Nothing.

She shifted her weight. "You know, everyone says you have a scar." She shrugged her shoulders a little. "But for what it's worth, you sound like just another person to me."

 _Still_ nothing.

"Will you please _say_ something?" He wasn't even shifting _position._

"What do you want me to say? Thank you for being blind?"

Now she was silent. She turned away.

"Oh, _Agni_ , come back-" She 'watched' behind her as he got up and faced her back. "I'm sorry, alright?"

She turned back around and smiled, arms crossed. "Oh, so you _**do**_ have a heart."

He growled.

"As I was saying, you sound like just another person to me . . . The only thing that distinguishes you is that awful _**temper**_ **.** You have an even shorter fuse than Sugar Queen."

"Arrrrgh." He sat back down, hands curled at either side of his head in frustration and facing away from her. "You're worse than my sister."

Toph stomped in offense. "Say _**what**_ _?_ " The earth rumbled beneath him and he steadied himself with his palms flat on the ground.

"Always _taunting_ me." She felt him tense.

She was quiet for a moment.

"You were supposed to rise to the bait and tell me I have no business talking about having a temper," she joked, and then paused. "And unfortunately I can't even tell if you're smiling."

"Will you just leave me alone?"

Apparently he wasn't.

"Do you really want to _**be**_ alone, Zuko?"

Silence.

"I spent my whole life alone, holed up in a house that was more of a prison than a home." Toph said sourly. "I know this probably isn't what you expected. It's probably the _last_ thing you expected. But these guys are willing to reach out to you, too. Your uncle knows it. And so should you."

She chuckled lightly to herself. "Twinkle-Toes has even done something uniquely _special_ for you."

"And what is that?"

"Aang is a total _pansy_ , Zuko. He doesn't get mad unless it's something really important. I heard what he said about your father- I wasn't trying to listen in, I swear, but it's hard to shut out a tone like that." She said seriously. "And I also don't want you to think that he was saying that _just because he doesn't want you chasing him anymore_. He said it because he _meant_ it."

"He once said he was willing to be my friend." Zuko muttered. "It's kinda hard to believe that offer still stands, considering."

"I already told you, he's not one to hold a grudge."

"Then I suppose it would be petty of _me_ to hold a grudge."

"Against him?"

Silence.

"So you're mad at _him_ because you haven't captured him yet?"

"I don't know." He said evasively. A lie. His heartbeat told her _yes, yes he was.  
_

"If you could take him back to the Fire Nation right now-"

His heartbeat grew more insistent, as if hopeful, affirming her suspicion.

"I don't _**believe**_ you." She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You're looking for the approval of the man who has been condemned by the _**softest**_ of the _**softies**_ , and you're _ignoring_ the man who has really earned the title father."

" _What do you know about me?_ " He stood again and whirled to face her. " _You met me one day ago!_ "

" _Tell me that I'm wrong, then_."

Silence.

"Tell me that you _want_ to go back to the Fire Nation. _That what they are doing to_ ** _my_ _country_** ," she placed her hand at her chest, "is justified."

Silence.

And now she began to understand that the rising heartbeat wasn't falsifying anything, it was only telling her of the conflict that was going on in him, as he angled his head away.

"Tell me that you don't care about Aang, and you don't care about your uncle."

"I don't care about the Avatar." He denied through gritted teeth.

"You're. Lying." She said plainly. "If you _**weren't**_ lying I would earthbend you into the next city-state." She punched downward and a slab of rock twice his size jutted up next to him. She watched with satisfaction as he jumped backwards in surprise, disappearing from her 'sight' for an instant. "Even if it would mean making your uncle go and fetch you."

She forced the earth back into place and began to walk away, amused that his blood pressure could shoot up any higher. In a slightly sing-song voice she said, "Good _night_ , _Dragon-_ boy . . . "


	7. Beige and Turquoise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre Scriptum: And before you ask, yes, Appa can carry all these people in my wacky universe. 'K?

"You're the idea guy." –Aang to Sokka

Sokka and Ty Lee arrived back at camp last. They saw Iroh, who was stroking an ostrich horse.

"Did you find a good place to graze today?" Sokka called to him.

Iroh turned to him. "Yes. I think he quite enjoyed it."

"Well," the boy suddenly addressed him as a private would a general. "we did a surveillance sweep today. And we didn't spot Azula or that machine."

"Wait . . . surveillance?" Ty Lee asked in surprise. "That flight with Zuko . . . ?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding to her.

She chuckled. "You're so _devious._ "

"What?" He shrugged. "I thought it would help Zuko, too."

"What are you talking about?" Iroh asked.

Ty Lee turned to him. "I told Sokka I wanted to take Zuko riding on Appa because I thought it would make him feel better. But _Sokka_ apparently had other _uses_ for the flight."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." He tilted his head. "And here I thought you could read minds."

She laughed. "Not exactly."

"So Ty Lee," he said, keeping his martial air, "What do you think Azula's next move is?"

Ty Lee's face fell.

"You okay?"

She focused on the ground.

"Hey, I'm sorry-" he put a hand to her shoulder. "but if you really want to help us-"

She shook her head, tight-lipped. "It's not so much that." She referred to her official loyalty, though it sounded like that was bothering her as well. "It's j-just . . . I-It's just- Azula . . . and Mai . . ."

She was rapidly unraveling. Could they possibly be the same girls that she had spent afternoons playing Hide and Explode with? What had the years apart done to her old friends?

"I-I never wanted to get involved with the fighting," she whispered to herself. "W-we learned war history and events in school, and I-I hated it. Weici told me to finish, to get the degree- that I should have it. B-but I wanted to just take my own path . . ." She suddenly looked up to them. "N-not that I'm not glad to be here with you guys, it just seems like . . . I've gone through a giant whirlwind and-"

She sighed.

"Rest assured, dear, you are in good hands." Iroh said gently.

She smiled at him, a genuine smile, despite her words. "I-I _know_ , Master Iroh."

She took a slow breath, steadying herself, suddenly sorry that she had neglected to do her meditating and warm up that morning, although she didn't regret watching Aang either. Finally she answered Sokka's question. "I don't see why she hasn't come back to attack us again, Sokka." She paused. "Well, no, that's not right. She saw us all together and the only fighter she has with her is Mai."

"Something I have told Zuko," Iroh nodded, "is that we are far safer traveling in a larger group like this."

Sokka addressed Iroh again. "As I told you, I want to keep moving. But now that we have an earthbending teacher and a firebending teacher," he inclined his head respectfully, "for Aang, we don't really have a destination any more."

Iroh stroked his beard. "Well, my nephew and I actually have a loose end to tie up." He patted the two-legged steed and it snorted.

"Aren't you just going to sell it?" Sokka asked. "We could use the money."

Iroh frowned deeply. "Unfortunately it needs to be returned to its rightful owner."

Sokka furrowed his brow. "You didn't- _buy_ it, did you?"

Iroh shook his head. "My nephew has many things to learn. And owning up to his mistakes is one of them. I believe it's time for him to face her."

Ty Lee and Sokka exchanged glances, not knowing who he was talking about, but also not wanting to ask.

"Where?" Sokka asked instead, pulling a map out of his pack and unrolling it in his hands.

Iroh pointed.

Sokka whistled. "That's really far north."

"It was one of the first places we stopped after the North Pole. Also-" He moved his finger southeast, much closer to where they were. "My nephew has just requested that we make a stop before heading to Onto," he said, using the name of the city where Song, the owner of the ostrich horse resided.

"If we were flying we could maybe get there in a few weeks. But it'll be much longer riding." Sokka observed.

Iroh folded his hands inside his sleeves. "Hmmm."

Sokka yawned and stretched. "Well, I guess we'll have to sleep on it. We'll convene the whole group to talk about it in the morning." He stowed the map away again. "G'night, guys."

The ostrich horse whinnied.

Ty Lee smiled at the animal and began running her fingers through its feather-fur, thankful for an aura that couldn't be burdened by thoughts like hers. Energy always seemed to work both ways . . . "You're a lot bigger than the guy I used to ride," she said reminiscently.

"Ty Lee?" Iroh asked.

"Yes sir?"

"I have wanted to resume Zuko's training. But I know he is still very . . . unstable. Will you tell me if he . . . improves?"

Ty Lee nodded, smoothing the feather-fur back into place where she had ruffled it. "I will, Master Firebender. I think you're right. He needs a break."

"And I have no doubt that the journey you-" Iroh patted the stolen ostrich horse again, "-will take us on will help him."


	8. The Sendoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another Zukaang friendship chapter. D'awww!
> 
> Tidbit I deem important- pigs ARE very intelligent. Some tests say more intelligent than dogs. EDIT 2020: And I haven't eaten pork for more than ten years for this reason. Just soes ya know.
> 
> And . . . I've kinda realized, I think I am living vicariously through Ty Lee- how cool would it be to interact with the awesome animals of Avatar- seriously!

"You're not soldiers. You're bullies. Freeloaders, abusing your power. Mostly over women and kids. You don't want Lee in your army. You're sick cowards messing with a family who's already lost one son to the war." –Zuko, _Book 2 Chapter 7, Zuko Alone_

The next morning, the prince was sitting on an old wooden porch, one elbow resting on one knee and the other leg straightened. Iroh had to admire his ability to sit completely still- if he so much as twitched the old timbers would probably creak like badgerfrogs during mating season.

Iroh was sitting on the ground next to him, not wanting to invite the imagined cacophony that would accompany his weight making contact with the boards.

As the rest of the Gaang gathered, Zuko's discomfort seemed to increase proportionally with the number of people. The boards under him did indeed squeak quite a lot.

Sokka told the rest of them about what he and Iroh had discussed. "So then, we have to decide who's going to ride the ostrich-horse." he finished.

"I would like to." Ty Lee said, bringing her forefingers together sheepishly. "But everything will go faster if the lightest person rides."

"Fine with me." Aang nodded.

They all packed up their meager belongings they had and set off, aerial bovine moving to keep pace with the avian-equine.

The town Zuko steered them towards was tiny, not much bigger than the abandoned settlement they had left behind. As soon as the few onlookers saw the tattoos on Aang, the tired and barren little place suddenly came to life. People poured out into the dusty streets to greet the Avatar.

But a different pulse, almost as quick as the enthusiasm, traveled through them as the prince dismounted from the huge beast. One of recognition. And one of hatred.

"What are you doing back here?" A man wielding two earthbending hammers demanded angrily.

Zuko stood silently for a long moment. He squared his shoulders, tilted his head upwards and stared down the one who had, a week ago, driven him from this town. There was no doubt he wanted to be there, but now that he had arrived, he seemed unsure of what to say. The people would never acknowledge his judgment of the man who stood before him and his lackeys, however true it was . . .

Aang glanced between them and turned to walk back to the firebender. He put a hand to his shoulder. This simple gesture sent yet another wave of reaction through the throng- _what was the Avatar doing with this Fire Nation outcast?_

Zuko watched their surprise with an unreadable expression and Aang fixed him with an encouraging gaze. "You came here to tell these people something, Zuko." He knew. He could see it in the determined stance of the prince.

Zuko didn't look at the airbender, but he did seem to take strength from him. Fire _did_ need air to burn. "When I left, I was trying to remember who I was. I told you all that I was prince of the Fire Nation. Heir to the throne. And maybe I am."

"But that's not all of who I am. I am now a refugee. I am someone who is weary of seeing what the Fire Nation has done to this country. I've _heard_ the justifications. And I don't believe them any more."

Toph turned her ear toward him slightly as she recognized her own words repeated. It was as if he were answering her questions from the night before.

"I've scoured the Earth Kingdom for years while looking for the one I thought would give me passage home." His golden eyes met Aang's for a second but he quickly looked back out again, as if he still did not quite believe their proximity. "What I tried so long to deny- that the things I encountered weren't matching the things I was taught. I have seen the inside of the Fire Nation, the lies it feeds its citizens. We are told that our Nation is sharing its greatness with the world through this war. But all the war does is spread fear and hatred. I am someone who wishes for my Nation to be _respected_ , as an equal, not feared as a tyrant."

Neither Aang's gaze, nor his hand had left the prince as he talked. But now he looked in concert with him at the gathered people. "And I am going to help him bring on this change."

Murmuring bubbled up. The Avatar was going to help the _Fire Nation?_ It seemed so backwards.

A boy came pushing through the crowd, his mother trying to hold him back by the wrist. "Let go!" he shouted. He wrenched free of her grasp and ran up to Zuko. "I believe you." He crossed his skinny arms. "and those bullies haven't gotten any better since you've left, either," he muttered.

"Bullies?" Aang asked.

"The soldiers." Zuko whispered to the monk. "They lord over the people here." Then he asked louder, so everyone could hear. "Do you know any Earth generals who are looking for new recruits? This guy has some real talent." He nodded to the earthbender.

Aang caught on quickly. "Why _yes_ ," he said sarcastically, "I think General Fong would simply _love_ to have someone of such high caliber."

Aang pointed to the man and barked, " _You there_ , what's your name?"

The man paled. "G-Gow."

Aang put on a show, played his role well. He puffed out his chest and _thunked_ his staff into the ground like a sage, taking on a deep play-voice to match. "I decree, by the authority vested in me by the Spirits, you will serve your country by traveling to General Fong's base. Tell him that the Avatar sent you, and give him my warmest regards."

By the end of his theatrics, it was all Katara and Toph could do to keep from bursting out laughing. Toph's gut was twisting because of Aang's performance. But Katara had extra reasons to be tickled because she had actually met General Fong, and knew that he and Aang were not on the best of terms, namely, that he had tried to force Aang into the Avatar state and Aang had destroyed half of his base. So "sending him his warmest regards" was quite frankly hilarious. They managed to contain themselves long enough for another sound to drown them out:

A cheer went up, echoing off the sides of the canyon walls surrounding them. The people were ecstatic to see their oppressor gone. And if he challenged any of them for the reason of their excitement, they could always tell him that they were just congratulating him for getting promoted. It was a win-win. Or rather, two wins, and one loss for him.

Gow himself blinked in surprise.

"Hurry up!" Aang snapped mock-irritably.

The man scurried away and returned twenty minutes later with his own ostrich horse and supplies. He was efficient, and _trained_ as a soldier, even if he never really had put the skills to work before.

He was given a hearty sendoff, an ovation fit for a true warrior. And as he disappeared over the horizon, people began to laugh. They started to spontaneously prepare for a celebration, even though their foodstuffs were meager. Actually, the thing they seemed to have most of was rye whiskey. But all of the visitors declined politely.

Out in the streets, a simple band began to play, composed of three stringed instruments, one with a bow and two played with fingers. They sawed out a continuous ribbon-like melody and a pluckier, bouncier accompaniment. Iroh lent his musical talents to their performance, his throaty voice meek among the men whose volume was supplemented by alcohol.

Ty Lee put on a performance as well, twirling and flipping to the rhythm, uneven though it was. The people whistled and egged her on- they had never seen such a show.

Katara and Aang were busy spinning stories of their adventures to a gathering of rapt, wide-eyed children. Aang was animated, jumping lightly from place to place and sending out small gusts of air, earning giggles and delighted gasps. Toph contributed occasionally, but even when she was silent for the events she had not been there for, she secretly knew when they were "embellishing" parts of their information. Zuko was silent throughout. He very much appreciated that they left his name and title out of their stories- only referring to him as "a fire nation soldier" who was after them. A smile even tugged at the corners of his mouth when Aang delivered a particularly enthusiastic rendition of his rescue by the Blue Spirit.

"It's like you all have history." Toph teased under her breath to him. "I kinda feel left out."

He smirked.

One by one their audience was abducted by fretting mothers as the afternoon turned to night. Lee was the only one left, remaining defiant to the last. His mother, Sela, began to scold him. "Come on, Lee. You've got to get to bed."

Lee tugged at Zuko's hand and smiled up at him. "Do you want to come see the finished roof?" Zuko had worked with the boy's father on the family's barn roof while he stayed with them.

"Sure." Zuko replied.

Toph, Aang, and Katara stayed in town to get something to eat and rejoin the others while the boy brought Zuko back to his home. The various swine-hybrids were not as noisy as he remembered because they were less active at night.

Several of the cow- and sheep-pigs ambled up to the fence, however, gazing sleepily at the tall boy.

"They recognize you, y'know." Lee said. "They're a lot smarter than they look."

"Once you show him the roof, it's bedtime, Lee." His mother warned.

"All right, all right." Lee huffed. He gestured for Zuko to help him with a ladder and they got it set up against the barn. Once he caught sight of the patch of crooked nails Zuko smiled slightly as he remembered his own difficulty with patching the roof.

"I did it all by myself." Lee declared proudly.

"Good job."

" _Lee!_ "

"Fine, fine, I'm _coming!_ " He stamped down the ladder and his mother bustled him into the house. Zuko continued to sit on the roof, gazing back out at the town which was now lit up by small standing torches. He saw a tiny figure rise and then fall. It was Aang, coming towards him, growing larger by leaps and bounds.

The airbender easily floated up to the roof and settled on his right. "They didn't have much in the way of vegetarian food." He told Zuko.

Zuko didn't reply.

"So did you get what you wanted, Zuko? 'Cause it's sure been fun for us, but we came here for you." The boy smiled.

"I think I did." Zuko said, still looking outward. "Thank you . . . for supporting me."

"Really, I should be thanking you. What you said- it made me realize something." Aang crossed his arms over his knees and followed his gaze.

"My first firebending Master . . . He was ashamed of his heritage, and his Nation. But you hold a hope that they could be something better. He seemed like he had given up on fire, discarded it as destructive and violent. But you haven't. And that's made me realize, that I shouldn't give up on it, either."

He paused. 

"Balance involves all the four elements, and all the four Nations." Aang went on, "And that means, as the Avatar, I have to be involved in improving all of them. Even the aggressor. And I can't write off any of them."

After it was apparent he wasn't going to get another response, the twelve-year-old observed, "So you made a friend? " He glanced back to the house.

"Yeah." Zuko said, and after another long pause, continued quieter, "I used to be a lot like him, once. A lot like you."

 _More carefree. More joyful._

Aang glanced sideways at the unscarred side of the prince. He wanted to say something in reassurance, something hopeful, but as he sat there, he realized that his presence, his simply hearing him, would suffice. That in saying the words, the elder boy had finally grown accustomed to him. So he looked on as well, letting the comfortable silence grow and flourish.


	9. Dreams

Pre Scriptum: I know I should probably give a good reason why I would quote the dreaded movie. So, uh, to that end, here's a link to my comical AND blistering review of it.

<https://www.deviantart.com/metellastella/art/Last-Airbender-Movie-Review-176956939>

"I'm scared. Don't make me any more scared." _–_ Yue, _The Last Airbender_

"I think about her all the time."-Sokka, _Book 2, Chapter 4: The Swamp_

_Ty Lee was bouncing from anticipation. This was going to be the first time she would see her friend's firebending lesson!_

" _Aren't you excited, Mai?" She tugged on the slightly taller girl's sleeve._

" _It's better than sitting at home." The other replied.  
_

_For all the enthusiasm the reserved seven-year-old lacked, the girl in the brown braid made up for, fidgeting like someone her age should._

_Azula marched out onto the arena and bowed to her master. The man bowed back. "Good day, princess, I see you've brought friends."_

" _Yes." Azula replied._

" _All right. We're going to practice what we did yesterday. Recite for me, please."_

" _The root is only to be broken when a sure footing is guaranteed."_

" _Very good. Demonstrate." The man dashed towards her and after several feigning strikes kicked properly. The princess rotated gracefully out of his way, in almost a pirouette. Continuing with his momentum he thrust his other leg out, and this time Azula jumped into the air to dodge, landing solidly, one leg straight._

" _Excellent, princess. Why did you not jump from the first attack?"_

" _My left foot was not aligned, and I would have landed off balance."_

" _Let us continue."_

_He launched another series of attacks at her, none of which connected. Only once did she make the wrong decision and stumble, but she quickly recovered herself._

_The instructor stopped then and made her describe in detail what had gone wrong with the move. Then she was asked to repeat the same angle three times._

_By the end of the lesson the man was panting slightly from the exertion of keeping up with her tiny agile form._

" _All right, princess. Now offensive exercises and we will be done for the day."_

_She smiled. She took up a slightly higher stance and began working through the katas while the man looked on. She would spar offensively with him in the next lesson. This day had been devoted purely to defense._

_Ty Lee gasped and cooed at her friend's artful display. Azula at first thrust blasts into the air with speed and precision, but then the style changed. She also pulled and caressed the flame slowly as it floated in front of her, rocking back on her heels and sweeping it sideways. When the princess was finished, she was excused and she strutted over to her two companions._

_She lit a flame and began to toss it from hand to hand. "What did you think?"_

" _Isn't it dull doing the same exercises over and over?" Mai droned._

" _You should come next time, it will be much more exciting." Azula nodded._

" _It's so pretty, Azula!" Ty Lee squealed, watching the red light go back and forth._

_Azula cocked her head slightly, as if this were not quite what she wanted to hear. "It is, isn't it?" She flicked the fire a little closer to the pink-clad girl's face. Ty Lee jumped back. "Y-yeah." Her smile returned from momentary relapse._

l

A much taller Ty Lee was rolling around in her sleep, muttering to herself. "No, stop it, Azula . . . no . . ."

A hand brushed her shoulder.

"What!" She sat bolt upright.

"Ty Lee?" Sokka's voice came to her.

"W-what?" She looked around, and was faced with the by now familiar sight of the Gaang as they slumbered. They had gotten several sleeping mats from the town they had stopped in, but like the nomad, she had found she liked resting on Appa more. He had obligingly let her sleep on his tail, the roomiest surface, while he lay cradled by one or more of the bison's limbs. How many days had it been now? It seemed like everything was beginning to settle down into a routine. Sokka had figured out quickly that they had to be extra careful with putting out campfires, as the benders could make embers flare if they took an especially large breath, even while unconscious. And it looked like, unfortunately, that had happened tonight. She spied the offending speck very near where her arm, which had fallen off of the furry mattress, had been, and felt a small twinge on her wrist.

"Are you okay? Were you having a bad dream?" Sokka hadn't noticed it.

She averted her gaze. "Y-yeah, I think s-so." She surreptitiously patted it down with the ball of her foot. She supposed she would ask Katara to heal the minor injury in the morning.

The hand came away and the voice grew serious. "Ty Lee, you were saying something about Azula. Did she ever . . .?"

Ty Lee's head snapped up. "No, no! Sokka, she's never hurt me!" The words spilled out in a rush. " _Really_ , she never has. B-but . . . she would always make sure that . . ." she sank back down onto her side and tucked a hand under her head. "That I knew she could. At any time."

There was silence.

"When I learned how block chi, she had me spar against other benders." Ty Lee recalled slowly, "and then she would fight the same people in her lessons, and defeat them . . . soundly."

Sokka's jaw tightened as he listened to the description of the psychological bullying.

"You going to be able to get some sleep?" He asked.

She nodded, sliding a foot into a more comfortable position.

He lay back down.

"Sokka?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you so sad when you see the moon?"

This time _he_ sat bolt upright.

"You're aura matches the sky when you look at it." She rolled to her back and faced the dark blue dome.

He opened and closed his mouth several times.

She sat up again, curiosity piqued by his quiet.

"Well . . . I guess I should tell you . . ." He settled into a cross-legged position. "You know how Katara and I took Aang to the North Pole to learn waterbending?"

"Yeah."

"Well . . . while we were there, there was this girl-" he hesitated, remembering Ty Lee's jealousy of Zuko, wondering . . .

"Yes?"

"-who I liked. A lot. And she- liked me too . . . But she was in an arranged marriage."

Ty Lee's face fell. "Oh. I'm glad I won't have to deal with that sort of thing."

"Hmmm?"

"Well, I mean, it happens all the time in the Fire Nation. Marriages arranged for political reasons. My two older sisters have already . . ." she paused. "Well, I'm interrupting your story."

"Oh, right. Well, I found out the guy she was engaged to was a real jerk. He was so self-centered and obnoxious and- urrrrgh." He brought his hands to his head in frustration. "But, well, none of it . . . mattered . . . after-" He sighed and spun his wrists around, as if trying to convey something. "It's actually, kinda hard to explain. The fire nation commander, Zhao, wanted to slay the Spirit of the Moon, Tui. And you know-" his jaw set again, "it always really bugged me how such a powerful Spirit could be such a small . . . I mean-" he cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, point is, he did get a hold of the Spirit. And he actually did-" he winced, "-do it. And the moon went dark."

"So _that's_ what that was!" Ty Lee exclaimed. "About three months ago, right?"

He nodded.

"I thought someone had _spiked_ something I drank." She shook her head.

In spite of himself, Sokka snickered.

"Well, I mean, first the moon goes red, and I feel really dizzy. And then it comes back, and then it's just-" she crossed her arms in an 'X' and spread them apart again. "-gone. And then everyone's auras are blazing like bonfires even in the darkness, and . . . I swear, I could feel angry energy coming from the sea. _From nearly a hundred miles inland_. It was the scariest, weirdest thing _ever_. I slept in Rila's room for a _week_ after that. But wait-" she paused. "-if he killed the moon-" she looked up to the white orb.

"Well, see, that's where Yue comes back in."

"Yue? That's her name?"

Sokka's frowned. Had he not mentioned that earlier? "Yeah. See, the moon spirit gave her a little bit of its life when she was born as a sick baby. So when it died, she . . ."

"Brought it back?" Ty Lee's eyes went wide.

He nodded half-heartedly, resting his hands on his knees. "She's the moon spirit now."

"Wow." she said simply, extending her legs and leaning back on her own hands, staring into space. "Oh! Of course! That's why you have the extra chi!"

l

_Now that the acrobat had a closer look at Sokka, she noticed something she hadn't before. Peoples' primary energy, that traveled along their trunk, usually moved upwards, exiting the top of their head. But she could almost say that a little more chi was being let off than was in his body._

l

It's . . ." She sat up again reached out to put her hand right above his head. "It's _hers_ ," she whispered gently.

Sokka froze.

Could he really, _literally_ be carrying a piece of her with him?

"I-I promised her father I would keep her safe during the invasion, but-" he looked away and took a large breath, ". . . I couldn't protect her . . ."

"You don't _blame_ yourself for it, do you?"

"I . . . I try not to."

"I'm so sorry, Sokka." She laid a hand on top of his.

At an unspoken cue, they both retreated back into their dreams, which sometimes gave them reprieve from their memories, but also sometimes brought them back afresh.


	10. Si Wong

"My dad changed his mind. He said I was free to travel the world." –Toph, _Book 2 Chapter 6, The Blind Bandit_

"I've found lost civilizations all over the Earth Kingdom, but I haven't managed to find the crown jewel . . ." -Professor Zei _Book 2, Chapter 10: The Library_

"You know, back in my tribe, I'm kinda like a Prince myself. _" -Sokka, Book 1, Chapter 18: The Waterbending Master  
_

"Great Spirits, flying is so _boring._ " Toph moaned.

"Mental note-" Ty Lee said chipperly, "to make Zuko feel better, take him flying. To make Toph feel better, cease flying." She winked at the prince.

"Right now, I have to agree with Toph." Zuko said. "Sight doesn't do you any good when there's nothing much to look at." They all glanced out into the endlessly repeating dunes of the orange-yellow wasteland. They were traveling through the Si Wong Desert, much to everyone's chagrin. It was the shortest way to Onto, taking up much of the middle of the Earth Kingdom, and Sokka and Iroh had also pointed out the advantages of traveling through somewhere with little to no Fire Nation presence.

"I know what we can do to keep Toph entertained." Katara quipped. "Ty Lee, you've told Sokka and me about our auras. Why don't you tell us about Toph's?"

Toph pointed to the waterbender. "You had better be _thankful_ there's no earth for me to bend up here, Queeny. Who knew you could be so _nosy_?"

"A bit defensive, are we?" Katara said, hands on her hips.

"Whatever I feel, I'm sure you would understand, Twinkle-Two. Didn't you say you run away from home, too?" She paused. "You joined the circus." She grinned. "And I joined ** _these_** guys. Not much different, right?"

"Meaning?" Katara narrowed her eyes.

"It isn't like a three-ring around here?" Toph joked.

"So you ran away. Is that why you're holding onto so much negative energy?" Ty Lee tilted her head.

Everyone looked to Toph, who, for once, looked like she didn't know what to say.

"Wait a second." Katara's eyebrows shot up. "You told us your father _let_ you come! _Y_ ou _lied_ to us?"

"I was glad to be out of there. And you were glad to have me."

Katara huffed. "So you used us to sneak behind your parents' back!"

Toph shrugged dismissively.

"Ty Lee, you didn't trick your parents like that, did you?" Katara demanded.

"No . . ." Ty Lee chewed her lip. "First I told my sisters I was going . . . and I told my parents, too. It wasn't 'an appropriate career choice.'" She spelled out the phrase reluctantly and warily as if it had been wielded against her many times. "They didn't send me any letters when I left either."

"For two years?" Katara asked quietly.

"Six isn't much different than seven, is it?" She replied just as quietly. "But _I_ got to see exciting places. I got to be unique. I got to be _me._ "

Toph nodded. "My parents wouldn't let me be me."

"It's not like you gave them much of a heads up." Katara fumed. "You could've at least showed your teacher what you could do-"

Toph stood, something she never did on Appa. "Butt OUT, Sugar Queen! I guess _you_ and _your_ parents got along _perfectly_ , right?"

Only Sokka knew why the silence that followed was so charged. He was steering Appa, sitting on his neck. He turned his head back on the group. "Hey, hey," he said, "I think the desert is getting to us a little bit-"

Katara waved him off. "Don't worry _big brother_ , I'm going to be the _mature_ one. She doesn't know, so there's no reason I should be mad." Her unconvincing words did nothing to relax her tightened fists, however. And although she had no intention of any physical attack, her next words might as well have been a blow to the stomach. "Our mother is _dead,_ Toph."

Incredibly, for a _second_ time, it looked like Toph didn't know what to say.

"She was killed in a Fire Nation raid several years ago. And our father is out fighting, assisting the _Earth Kingdom_ , by the way." Katara continued scathingly to the earthbender.

Sokka picked up her thread like the reins he was holding and tried to 'steer' the conversation in a more friendly direction. "So when we found Aang, we wanted to go with him. And once our Gran-Gran found out he was the Avatar, she actually encouraged us to go- And heeeey-" he spread one arm amicably, "here we all are, maybe a little irritable from the heat, but we enjoy ourselves, right?"

"Riiiiiiiight?" He niggled at the silence.

Toph gave a signature hair-puff and sat back down.

Katara smiled a bit, amused by her brother's attempt to diffuse the situation. "Practice a bit more, Sokka, and I think you'll be as good a peacemaker as Aang." She glanced over the side of the saddle to see the young monk, smile widening. From that height, his and the ostrich-horse's forms made strange shapes because his clothes matched the sand around, and the dark patches where the feather-fur showed through undulated back and forth under his half-cloak and sleeves.

"Hey." Katara said. "There's someone down there."

Everyone else looked to see a man frantically waving his hands back and forth, trying to get the airbender's attention. He must've been shouting too, but he wind carried his voice away.

The ostrich horse slowed as Aang noticed him.

"I think he's stopping, Sokka." Katara told him.

Sokka pulled up on the bison's reigns. "Does he want us to come down?"

"We might as well take a break!" Toph said, jumping at the chance to get out of the air, and out of the hot water that the waterbender had boiled her in.

Sokka directed the bison's decent, and the man, whose clothes matched the sand closer than Aang's attire, rushed up to Appa and immediately began to exclaim excitedly. "My word! This is incredible! An actual sky bison! I thought they were extinct long ago!"

"Everyone, this is professor Zei." Aang gestured to the man. "He's searching for-" he scratched his head- "a library, right?"

"Created by the Knowlegde Spirit Wan Shi Tong." The professor closed his eyes and nodded dreamily.

"Is this library underground?" Iroh asked, eyes narrowed.

Zei nodded. "I suppose it could be."

Iroh stroked his beard. "I think we should accompany you."

The professor's face lit up and he clasped his hands together. " _Really?_ That would be _splendid!_ "

"Why?" Sokka asked Iroh.

"At the siege of the North Pole, Admiral Zhao told me he discovered the identities of Tui and La in an underground library. I think it is worthwhile, Avatar," he turned to face Aang, "to find out how this Spirit would allow someone like Zhao to gain such valuable knowledge."

Aang nodded.

"Well," Sokka said, "this sounds exciting. But first," he threw his hands in the air, "let's eat. It's lunchtime."

Everyone sighed in annoyance. "Don't you ever think about anything other than food?" Toph asked.

"Yes." Sokka retorted. "I think about plans and-"

"Whatever." Toph brushed him off.

As they settled down, Iroh commented under his breath to Sokka, "That _was_ an admirable intercession, by the way. Even I have qualms about trying to get between two quarreling women."

Sokka laughed softly and nodded. Then he looked from him to Zuko.

He observed loudly to the prince, "You _kno-ow_ , you and your uncle are the only ones who haven't gotten condescending nicknames." He snuck a furtive glance at her- "Maybe Toph's losing her touch-"

"Or maybe-" Toph flicked her wrist casually, bending and depositing sand into Sokka's lunch. "- _you_ need to watch your munchies."

"Heeeey!" He screeched, indignant that his food could be desecrated so.

The professor pestered them with questions as they ate. All of them were from separate Nations, so the exuberant anthropologist might as well have been a kid in a diversely stocked candy shop. And in all actuality, he seemed to draw sustenance from the knowledge just as surely as they were being nourished by the food. His notebook overflowed with notes of their responses. Aang, of course, received the bulk of the insistent grilling, but his attention happened to end on this:

"So, there is a large age gap between you and the rest of the children at the South Pole," he was reading off some of his scribbles.

Katara nodded. "We were pinched for resources for a while, Gran said. But after her husband died, the new chief needed to have children, so we were the only ones born then. Part of the reason we had so many younger kids was to replace the men that left."

"Planned births . . ." he mused, "Only a select few communities could come to such weighty decisions so easily."

"We're all like extended family." Katara smiled.

He checked over more of the paper. "And you say- that the Northern and Southern water tribes have resumed contact! How perfectly marvelous! They stopped communicating about two decades into the war, you know, with the Fire Navy controlling the seas. Both have periodically jumped in and pulled out of the conflict, but never really committed-"

" _Our dad has committed._ " Sokka rebuked. "He said he's not backing down until the war's over."

"Ah, and when did he set out?" Zei asked, flipping a page.

"I was nine, so . . . six years ago."

Zei nodded passively, jotting quickly. "I see, I see."

Her brother locked onto Karara's matching blue eyes sadly. "So he didn't help at all . . ."

" . . . until after Mom died." she finished in disappointment. Doubt seeped into him. Would they still have their dad with them if she hadn't passed away? Katara looked away from him and made an attempt to salvage the solemn turn the conversation had taken. "But professor, the ease of exchange between the tribes hasn't diminished. You wrote down than our grandmother married the chief of her time, but that she was from the North Pole, right? It wasn't so much as mentioned to us. It was just natural."

"I hate to burst your bubble, sis." Sokka replied slowly. "But how do you know it wasn't an _intended_ secret? Why did it _never_ come up? We never talked about the Northerners much at all, outside that, either. I might be able to understand their not sailing all the way across the world to help against the raids . . . and Chief Arnook was pretty okay with me, but Hahn and some of the other guys definitely saw me as a 'Southerner,' not one of them. "

The two shared one more intense glance, the contrast between their personalities forming a little bit of a gulf. Katara the optimist, and Sokka the "realist."

Zei surreptitiously closed his notebook, sensing the atmosphere his questioning had brought on.

"I guess we have some things to ask her and dad." Sokka concluded with a small sigh.

"Yeah." Katara agreed, crestfallen.

Zuko interjected incredulously, "So wait, your father- he took all the men and left the women and children _undefended?_ "

" _I_ was there." Sokka countered.

"Well you aren't now." Zuko pointed out off-handedly.

The two teens were obviously recalling their first meeting. The firebender had defeated the tribesman easily. The latter's face fell in annoyance. And now he wanted to accost and question his _father,_ their _chief,_ and accuse him and Sokka of the some disloyalty, too? _That_ wasn't going to happen.

"If we hadn't had the sanction of our elder, we wouldn't have left," he asserted heatedly, jaw setting.

Zuko suddenly grew serious. "What was keeping anyone from just swooping in? What if it had been someone- y'know, . . . _worse_ than me who came?"

"Worse than _you?_ " He smirked. "As it was, you were headed directly towards us, full steam. If Aang here-" Sokka gestured to the airbender, who looked caught off guard by being suddenly dragged into the argument- "hadn't put on his little _light-show_ , you never would have found us. We would have spotted your smokestack long beforehand and been packed up and out of there. The small size of our village is an _advantage._ One that we've intentionally kept in place-" Katara made an assenting noise, referring to her earlier explanation, "Our home changes shape as ice recedes and moves forward. A lot of the perimeter is a maze of islands, though you'd never be able to tell from most outsider maps, because frozen seawater connects them the majority of the time. Gran and I did a lot of work to make sure we were well concealed from the main sea currents. To make sure we stayed on secure ground or ice shelves, too."

The persistent scribbling of the boar-q-pine quill in Zei's hand resumed and ceased after a few moments and he nodded. "Most impressive feats. Especially without trained benders to assist."


	11. Black and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre Scriptum: This is the BEST QUOTE EVAR. Ahem. Sorry. Moving on. Hopefully you'll get the double meaning of the chapter title.

"If you're going to lie to an all-knowing Spirit-being, you should at least put some effort into it." –Wan Shi Tong

"Oh, _wow._ " Ty Lee exclaimed, hand over her mouth. To everyone else, Wan Shi Tong was only static black and white. But to Ty Lee, he was a mercurial conglomerate of colors.

Everyone was relieved to be inside out of the oppressive heat of the Si Wong. However, quite a few of them had shivered when they finally got into the library. It wasn't so much that the temperature was very low. But the combination of the eerie green lights and the receding darkness all around was enough to send your skin crawling.

"Are you the Spirit who brought this library to the physical world?" Sokka asked the giant ebony barn owl.

"Indeed. I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten-thousand things. And you are obviously _humans_ , which _by the way_ are no longer permitted in my study."

 **"** What do you have against humans?" Aang piped up.

Wan Shi Tong leaned down towards him. " _Humans_ only bother _learning_ things to get the edge on _other_ humans. You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified? Countless others before you have come here, seeking weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies."

Iroh folded his arms inside his sleeves. "Then you believe everything is relative, Wan Shi Tong? You do not believe there is any absolute right for us to strive for?"

The owl's white face turned to him. " _Iroh Spiritwalker_." The sarcasm in his voice rustled like a wolf-bat's wings. "What an _honor_ it is to have you at my library. And what a _prime_ example of _relative truth_." A taloned foot stepped forward. "Was it not just _six_ years ago that you laid brutal siege to Ba Sing Se?"

Iroh's face grew solemn. "And the Spirits showed me the error of my ways. I am in service to the Avatar now. You question his authority? You question his _motives_?"

"The Avatar is as human as anyone else."

"So you think we should do nothing?" Iroh demanded quietly. "You think that it is right to simply let Ozai-"

"I _know_ ," The owl's feathers stood on end, "that unless you are here for the sake of curiosity, and not advantage, _I do not want you here._ "

" _Then you still deny-"_

" _ **Let me give you another example of relative truth**_." Wan Shi Tong boomed at the retired general, cutting him off violently. He moved swiftly to Zuko and bent down, deep jet-black almond eyes boring into him. "Your uncle is still quite a capable combatant, prince. He felled Zhao's men at the North Pole with ease that befits a much younger man, fended off an entire squadron of your sister's. He has begun conditioning himself again to train the Avatar. But tell me, _where_ was all his strength in the months that you struggled to capture the boy, after he emerged from his slumber? His allegiance was always to the Lotus. He _never_ meant you to return home. _He has_ _ **betrayed**_ _you._ _And you have not forgiven him. **Have** you_?"

Zuko's eyelids grew heavy . . . . His uncle had never fought the Avatar with him, for so long he had labored, and his uncle had never truly wanted him to succeed . . . the weeks of pouring over maps, the sleepless nights he had spent, were all pointless to the general . . . he had always meant for the Avatar to stay free . . . Everything that had gone through his mind right after the waterbender had healed his uncle and he had implored him to abandon his father's mission, abruptly came rushing back to the surface- As the Spirit talked the words swelled and morphed into a torrent of his own resentment that flooded him once more-

It wiped everything out, overloading his senses, suffocating him-

" _You have not forgiven him, have you?"_ The answer pressed in on him- the bitter word formed in a snarl at his mouth- _No._

But before he could get it out . . . something rose up that had beaten back the same force before . . .

_. . . "If you care about him anywhere near_ _**as much as he cares about you** _ _, you'll let the damn waterbender heal him." . . ._

_. . . "I don't believe you. You're looking for the approval of a man that has been condemned by the softest of the softies, and you're ignoring_ _**the man who has really earned the title father** _ _." . . ._

Her voice echoed through his head . . . as the memory of her conviction filled him, he was sure again, he _knew_ , he did not want to hate his uncle, he did not, _he did not,_ _ **he did NOT**_ -

He struggled against the anger, he fought it, but it fought back, incensed that he could resist-

Suddenly the great owl was blown backwards, toppling a bookshelf and sending white pages and black feathers flying. A tall wiry man in deep red robes had appeared, a knobby hand extended towards him. He was wreathed in yellow fire and his eyes glowed blue-white. " _NEVER_ DID I THINK A SPIRIT COULD BE SO _PETTY_ \- TO LASH OUT LIKE A _CHILD_ WHEN HE IS FACED WITH BEING WRONG." The outrage in his unearthly voice reverberated throughout the library.

The aged bender floated towards the owl, robes billowing and pages from rent books whipping and spinning around him, catching fire. " _The Spirits appointed me to keep balance in this world, Wan Shi Tong. And I do not take my duties lightly._ _**YOU WILL ACCUSE- ME- OF- CORRUPTION- NO- LONGER.**_ "

The owl stirred, getting slowly to his feet. "I a-ask your forgiveness, Avatar." He lowered his head in deference. "Please accept my humble apology."

The man's eyes returned to normal and the flames subsided as he slowly lowered to the floor. "And you will _not_ torment my kin." He turned and walked as if he were solid, and came to stand in front of Zuko. The prince was strangely reassured as he looked up at him, even though he had never seen the man before. The rest of the anger subsided, draining out of him as he met his gaze.

"Zuko," Iroh explained, "This is your great-grandfather, Avatar Roku."

Katara and Sokka gasped.

Roku laid a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "I do not blame your uncle for not telling you about me sooner, grandson. You see, he has seen the same conflict in you that he saw in himself. Loyalty to the Fire Nation, and loyalty to the world. He did not want to force this on you. He wanted you to choose this path for yourself. _And you have_. You wonder why you have formed a friendship so quickly with someone you thought to be your enemy. It is because we are bound together. Please, do not hold it against Iroh. He has only your best interests at heart."

Zuko nodded once. "He always has."

Roku beamed at him with pride and embraced his great-grandson.

The past Avatar then went to Iroh. "Thank you, Spiritwalker, for taking such good care of him." The Dragon of the West bowed deeply.

Roku's form wavered and shifted like fog. Aang reappeared, unusually aware for coming out of an Avatar episode, smiling softly.

Zuko rushed to Iroh and threw his arms around him. "Uncle, I'm sorry." Now, as if a tide had shifted, the other side of his memories washed over him, the days of snubbing his uncle, the countless times he had yelled at him, had taken him for granted . . .

Iroh man returned the hug, tracing soothing circles on his back. "It's all right, nephew."

Ty Lee was cowering behind Sokka with her hands on his shoulders, still reeling from the intense and sudden change from negative to positive energy. She had her eyes tightly closed, thoroughly disoriented from the powerful Spirits' heated exchanges. "D-does this sort of thing h-happen often?"

"To _us?_ " Sokka qualified. "Yep."


	12. History Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and following concepts are a product of me, knocking around the internet for deity names. No disrespect intended to any religions involved. 'Agni,' the Sun Spirit, is mentioned somewhere in the Avatarverse, though I do not remember where. 'Mahimata' means 'Earth Mother' according to Hindu tradition. 'Zburator' is a 'wolf-headed dragon.'
> 
> Also, I am aware of the species of Korra's animal guardian. This idea was thought up before Naga was revealed, before ATLOK was even hinted at, back during that long in-between period where we were left with little to no clues as to what the Water Avatar's companion would be, and I wondered. And I'm not going to change it: this is my story, and I'm sticking to it, so to speak. ;)

"Yes, yes, I know you fear the Spirits, Iroh." –Zhao

"The Spirits gave me a vision when Yue was born. I saw a beautiful, brave young woman _become_ the Moon Spirit." –Chief Arnook

Wan Shi Tong spread his wings and the shelves that had been knocked over rose and set themselves upright again. Several fox assistants converged on the group, collecting and replacing all the scattered books.

"I'm sorry about that." Aang said sheepishly, eyeing all the tattered pages.

One of the foxes glanced up at Aang, acknowledging his apology with a woof. Wan Shi Tong, however, stood stoically, giving no indication that he had even heard him.

As they worked, Iroh told everyone the story of Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin.

The foxes then began to disperse, but one stopped in front of Ty Lee, cocking his head and sniffing at her. "Hey, there." She scratched it behind the ears. It wagged its tail and leaned into her fingers.

When she pulled her hand away the fox turned its attention to Sokka, gazing intently at him.

"What?" He asked.

The fox bowed, one paw extended towards him.

Sokka raised his eyebrows. "Well, thank you, I think." He looked to Ty Lee. "Any idea what that's about?"

She rubbed her chin. "I dunno."

"You have a strong spiritual connection to canines, I believe, young tribesman." Wan Shi Tong observed.

"Oh, well, yeah. That makes sense." Sokka said, recalling his tribe's headpieces and various other traditions. "Our people worship the eel-wolf. It's too bad they're all extinct."

"That's right. There weren't any eel-wolves in the Southern Tribe while we were there." Aang recalled. "They were the Water Avatar's spirit animal guardian. They're all _gone_?"

The fox yipped in disagreement and shook its head.

"Eel-wolves?" Iroh intoned. "There is a sizable population of eel-hounds guarded by the Order of the White Lotus." He paused. "I believe I remember hearing that they are descended from the creatures you are talking about."

"You are correct." Wan Shi Tong supplied. "There are several different varieties of them now, each bred for different purposes. Some of them have been streamlined into more reptilian forms for speed through water, and warmer weather. Some of them, for whom they have been renamed, can track people almost as well as a shirshu. Some of them retain more of their archaic features- they used to resemble my mammalian assistants more," He indicated one of the foxes with his wing, "with fur to withstand the harsh climates of the South Pole. The story of their near-genocide coincides with the onset the war, actually."

Everyone was absorbed into Wan Shi Tong's words now.

"The Moon and Ocean reside in the North and the eel-wolves used to reside in the South, an equivalency of sorts. But when hopes of a Water Avatar returning were waning thin, and the Fire Nation raided the Southern Tribe, the people gained a growing sense of abandonment. The eel-wolves were a cruel reminder of the Avatar that everyone wanted, but that never appeared. As bad luck would have it, a quirk also began to arise, that produced eel-wolves without fur, and made them resemble the Fire Nation's reptilian komodo-rhinos, dragons, and mongoose-dragons. The people took this as a bad omen, and in their fervor killed off all but a few of them. The elders of the Southern Tribe recognized the need for them to remain, however, and delivered all of the surviving wolves to the Order of the White Lotus for safe-keeping. With their disappearance, the elders proclaimed them extinct, and built off the people's guilt to reinstate their position as respected and Spirit-favored, devising customs that would reinforce this. The Order agreed to bring the creatures back to the Southern Tribe when the Water Avatar reappeared."

As the owl talked, Aang hunched his shoulders sadly. "Yet another thing that I have caused with my absence."

Katara laid a hand on his downed shoulder, giving him a look that obviously said, _We've already been through this. You can't blame yourself for these things._

"So what is the Order of the White Lotus?" Zuko asked.

"The Order is society that stretches across all the boundaries of the four Nations." Wan Shi Tong's voice radiated with deep respect. "They have for generations withstood war and political strife to exchange knowledge and philosophy."

"If you hold them in such high regard," Iroh raised an eyebrow, reading Wan Shi Tong's tone, "then why did you feel the need to act so hostile towards a Grand Lotus?" he asked, referring to himself.

"The society is not a fighting force, Spiritwalker." he rumbled. "And yet I read that your intentions lead you to call upon them, if you see the need. _I still do not appreciate knowledge being used to battle._ " He glanced at Aang. "Although I suppose I have no choice in the matter when _the Avatar_ asserts his will." He finished resentfully.

Aang looked to the floor in shame.

"You wanted to ask me something else." Wan Shi Tong said tersely to the retired general.

"Admiral Zhao-" he began-

"I fear that is another reason you induced so much negative energy within me." The owl talked over him. "I always thought that was not one for discrimination. But apparently even _I_ am prone to holding grudges against nationalities. And normally I would simply let your curiosity foment. But I believe it is also the _Avatar's will_ for me to tell you." He said barbarously as he once again glanced at Aang, who still hadn't looked up from the floor.

Katara marched up to the owl indignantly, fed up with his animosity. "Could you _lay off_?" she growled up at him. "For one so _knowledgeable_ , you should be able to understand that Aang is _freezing_ _ **sorry**_ for what happened. And he's an _air nomad_ , for Spirits' sake. They're peaceful people. He _doesn't_ like the fighting _**any more than you do**_ **.** "

Wan Shi Tong blinked at the 'firey' display from the waterbender.

He then looked back to Iroh and waved a wing. "Follow me."

He led them down several corridors, and his footsteps grew more hesitant as they proceeded. They came upon a large room, hung with a Fire Nation banner. All that was in it were huge piles of dark ash. Everyone was silent at the sight. It felt a little like a grave.

The giant raptor talked quietly to Aang now. "I wield a great deal of power, Avatar." He drew himself up, neck elongating at the statement, half-unfurling his long cloak-like flight feathers and opening his pointed beak. "But . . . I am mortal." The bird's gaze was momentarily swallowed by the empty husk of a room as he shrank back again. His sorrowful confession hung in the air.

"He came here, and I gave him the same warning that I gave everyone. Leave, or be exterminated. He obliged quickly. But then he came back with an entire battalion of soldiers." For once the huge owl would not turn his piercing gaze to anyone, he only faced downward, and even with his great size, as his story wound out, he seemed to grow less intimidating, he seemed to shrink even more, to collapse in on himself.

"They began to- to burn this section on the Fire Nation, and while I fought with them, he slunk away and ferreted out the scroll on the Northern Water Tribe. As soon as he left I could sense the knowledge he had taken, but I was . . . unable to go after him."

"After that I swore to myself again that I would not let any other humans in, and I must admit, Avatar, I was angry at you for being absent from the world for so long. I have behaved disgracefully, and I believe I must apologize again." He finished meekly, glancing in turn to Iroh and Katara as well.

Aang walked to him, standing just a few feet away from the large claws and looked up into his downturned face. "I don't blame you for holding on to your pain." He could sense the owl's grief as acutely as Ty Lee could. "But if I win this war, will you please un-bury your library and allow people to come again? I know that your tomes can become a beacon for the gathering of minds in a time of peace."

The owl angled his head away, as if considering his words. He scanned the ancient shelves behind him that were still intact, lost in thought.

"I would love for my students at the University to come and see this magnificent collection, Knowledgeable One." Zei bowed to him.

"Isn't that what you wanted, Wan Shi Tong?" Ty Lee asked gently. "For people to come and learn? Isn't that why you built this library? Is . . . is that why you _became_ mortal?"

The owl couldn't smile, but his voice did grow warmer. "Ah, Spiritseer. I did indeed cross over from the Spirit world because I wanted to _share_ my knowledge." He readjusted his wings and took a large, regretful breath.

"Then you will let them come back if I restore balance?" Aang asked him again.

Wan Shi Tong puffed out his chest and nodded. "Yes, Avatar."

"Toph was even trying to show me a technique that can make rock out of sand- perhaps she could make a path to this place." Aang mused to himself.

* * *

The group inside spent the next hours perusing shelves eagerly, and Iroh and Sokka compared invasion strategies. Iroh, unfortunately, had not had contact with naval information for a month, so he wasn't up-to-date on the positioning of fleets. Also, he had specialized in land combat when he was a general. But, he could give insight nonetheless.

Sokka was ecstatic when he unearthed a bit of information with aid of a special astronomical-prediction mechanism- that there would be an eclipse before the comet arrived.

Aang was wandering around the domed room, observing the artificial stars and running his hand along the painted night sky thoughtfully.

"Aang?" Ty Lee said, "Your aura is turning white." She cringed slightly. "A-are you going to revert to Roku again?"

Aang looked up to where the representational moon covered the sun. "No, I think . . . I'm being called to the Spirit World." He sat down where he was and put his fists together.

"The Spirits . . . What did you say about the Spirits, uncle?" Zuko asked. "You said they 'showed you the error of your ways?'"

Iroh sighed. "Yes, well . . . my journey to the Spirit World is what led me to the Order, actually." He closed his eyes and bowed his head. "When Lu Ten died during the siege of Ba Sing Se, I cursed Mahimata, the Earth Spirit. I was whisked away from my body and she came upon me in a rage, intending to wipe out the man who dared to attack her people and defile her name. But Agni, the Sun Spirit, intervened on my behalf because I had faithfully carried the secrets of his remaining children, the dragons. They, like the eel-wolves, are believed to be extinct."

"They aren't?" Zuko asked, surprised.

"No, but there are only two in existence. Two I met."

"So you _tricked_ grandfather into believing you slayed a dragon?" Zuko hadn't even been born when his uncle had presented his prize, supposedly triumphant.

Aang had opened his eyes again and fixed his eyes on the retired general with faint alarm. "Why would you need to slay a dragon in the first place?"

"When the dragons refused to assist the attack on the Air Temples, Sozin began the practice of hunting them." Iroh told him. "The body I presented to my father had been preserved by a people who revered them- The Sun Warriors."

"So you burned it enough so they couldn't tell it had already been dead." Zuko finished off the thought with awe. "And Agni saved your life for it."

Iroh nodded. "Instead of destroying me, the Earth Spirit gave me a vision of the unity of the world: of how the sea and moon created the tides and currents that spread heat from Agni. Of how the combination of earth and fire in my own country produced such fertile soil from volcanoes. And how the grief of the people of the Earth Kingdom matched my own. I wandered for a long time after that, not only to mourn for Lu Ten, but also to completely absorb the immensity of all my past wrongdoings. The Earth Mother was still able to cause me a great deal of pain. But Agni insured that it was a constructive pain, pain that put me on the right path."

"So that's where you were." Zuko said softly. "When you didn't come home after the battle."

Iroh touched his nephew on the back. "I feel as if I owe _you_ an apology, too, for not returning right then."

"Everything definitely got better when you were there." But then he shook his head. "But you needed to deal with it, uncle. I understood why _then_ , too. Really."

At their story's conclusion, and the following silence, Aang's tattoos began to glow.

* * *

He found himself standing in what no longer was simply a representation of a sky. He felt as if he were standing, but he was floating, his semi-transparent form reflecting the various shades of blue cast by the night and the day. The metal gears had now been replaced by real celestial bodies that slowly drifted around him.

Roku likewise 'stood' with his dragon, Fang, and another man, wearing a polar bear headpiece, was next to him, hand resting on what Aang recognized as an eel wolf. It had turquoise fur with white markings, and its thick tail, although the actual flesh tapered, got bushier down its length, like the tail of a shirshu. It had short, pointed ears, a long rounded snout, and small razor-sharp teeth. Its neck was not as proportionately as long as its tail and lanky legs, which ended in blunt claws. Its eyes were dark and intelligent.

"Greetings, Aang." The man in blue said. "I am Avatar Kuruk, and this is my companion, Zburator."

He continued, "We are here to tell you that you will not need to worry about raising an army. You _will_ be traveling to the Fire Nation during the eclipse. But it will not be for battle."

"What? Why?"

"The Spirit of the Moon has told us."

Yue flickered into existence next to him. "Hello, again, Avatar."

Aang grinned goofily. "I guess you _would_ know about the eclipse, Yue."

She folded her hands in front of her and laughed lightly, with her gown's tresses wrinkling and shaking to her mirthful rhythm. "I do not know as much as I would like to, Aang. My soul is still in the process of merging with my new station. All of Tui's memories were scattered when she was killed. It is a very odd sensation, as they gradually come to me, because it's like I'm gaining something back that I lost and taking on something new at the same time."

"But what Kuruk said is true. Agni, Tui's brother, forewarned her of her fate at the hands of Zhao. That was why she knew to bless me with some of her life- and why my father knew my destiny. She wanted to do something in return for Agni, but I do not know what. I have gathered, however, that it involves you during the joining of the sun and moon. And that she would prevent history from repeating itself."

"Well then, I will tell the others that we won't mount an attack." He breathed out in relief. Sokka's excited talk of battle unnerved the monk a lot more than he let himself admit.

"Good luck, Aang. And tell Sokka-" she swallowed, "that I miss him. But I'll always be with him." She smiled slightly. "And I think he knows what I mean."

Aang nodded.

* * *

Sokka at first objected fairly strongly to the passive missive. But when he heard who the bearer of the message was, he seemed to forget about his initiative and adopt a more somber, reserved attitude for the rest of their stay.

* * *

Outside, Toph was using the very altering technique Aang had mentioned before to coalesce sand and ground herself. Sandbenders had swarmed in on her and Appa.

She quickly realized that creating a solid island of rock was creating more problems than it solved. She tried to break pieces off and shoot them at the benders, but her 'sight' was favoring the rock and cutting her off from 'seeing' through the rest of the sand. She quickly dispersed the new sandstone and sank her feet back into the soft medium, turning over the top so her bare soles wouldn't be burned by the hot surface. She tried to focus and extend her muddled sense outward, steeling herself against Appa's terrified, voluminous bellows. "I'm trying, buddy, I'm trying . . ."

She couldn't see what was happening to Appa, but she did see . . . There! Two benders coming at her, whipping up whirlwinds. As she closed her eyes to keep out the grit, she smiled. They were used to fighting people who were 'blinded' by this technique. She shoved experimentally at the sand. She recalled the method she had used to handle dust before, spreading her fingers and slicing at the two benders. She smirked at their surprised shouts.

Even with her dulled senses, she could feel the huge _whumpf_ as Appa was forced to the ground. _What were they doing to him?_ She waded through the sand, adjusting a technique she used for sinking into the earth to move it fluidly around her knees and propel herself forward.

"Oh no, you don't!" With more confidence this time, she heaved sand at three benders on one of his flanks. They scattered, blocking her attacks, and regrouped on her. She swung back and forth on her wave of sand, trying to evade their volleys, as they quickly copied her mode of movement. Soon the sand was churning like the ocean and arcs of the grains were whizzing through the air. Sand moved a lot faster through the air than rock. She gave a small yell of surprise as she took a glancing hit across one of her forearms.

Appa moaned once in concern, and then, as soon as he had gotten to his feet again, bellowed a warning. Not even questioning how she understood him, she submerged herself completely and she felt him spin around above her, knocking her several opponents off their feet. Then he took to the air and bellowed again, reassuringly, as if to say, _Thanks for the save. I've got this handled now._

She pulled herself back out of the ground as she felt a pressure further off and heard the splintering of wood. The sandbenders began to converge on their other remaining vessel to escape the enraged beast.

Appa landed again, grunting in satsfaction, and Toph curtsied to him. "We make a good team, Sir Moans-A-lot."

Appa bowed back to her with his front feet and roared triumphantly.


	13. Dual Swords

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember that intro scene to the series, where Katara and Sokka are standing together, Sokka is holding a lantern, and there are ships in the distance? I've always wondered what that scene is illustrating- it's really beautiful, and so sad. It is implied throughout the series that they have not seen their dad since they were very little kids, but they were older in that scene. So what was going on, I wondered . . . ?
> 
> And I was kinda surprised to find out that Kanna was Hakoda's mother and not Kya's.
> 
> And also, I think this is an opportune time to apologize for all the insistent character paralleling/comparisons I do. 
> 
> This chapter was also built on the notion that Sokka's attitude towards Katara in the opening episode didn't just magically materialize out of nowhere.

"What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" -Sokka, _Book 3, Chapter 2: The Headband_

A figure stood, silhouetted against the dunes, illuminated by white starlight. He began to move and shift, swiping two swords back and forth silently.

"You're holding them all wrong."

Sokka started and dropped the twin blades. "Oh- uh- um-" he stammered.

"Pick them back up."

"You're not . . . mad?" he asked the temperamental bender incredulously.

"If you wanted to learn, you should've just asked." The firebender walked towards him and retrieved the fallen swords from the sand, brushing the abrasive grains from them with care. The boy named Lee had purloined his swords as well. What was so fascinating about them, anyway?

However, he was finding that he liked teaching as much as performing his craft. He bent down and began carving the air with fluid, interchanging actions, telling Sokka the similar lecture he had given to the boy. "These are dual swords. You can't think of them as two different weapons. They go through the same motions. They're just opposite halves of the same whole."

He offered the handles back to Sokka, who began to copy his movements.

"A little tighter in the wrist there. See how they take the same path? Step a little wider." Zuko instructed him patiently. "You know, it might be easier to get footing once we're out of this desert and on more solid ground."

Sokka lowered the swords. "Yeah, well, it's not like I can get my own pair, anyway."

"I don't know." Zuko shrugged. "You can get secondhand swords. Or offer to work in a smith's shop for a while. Aang will certainly have his hands full with earthbending and firebending."

"That would be nice." Sokka fitted the matching halves together and looked down their length, examining them. "When did you get them?"

"I started exclusively using the dao during my first year in exile. I started swordsmanship as a hobby a lot earlier, though, after my uncle gave me a scimitar. But I picked up on it so quickly, and it came so much more naturally than- it was a nice change from-" he frowned a little- "my firebending teachers who picked up on nothing but the _absence_ of perfection."

"Wait. You've never had them with you before, though." Sokka said quizzically. "Not while you were after us, at least."

"Well, I didn't want to . . ." He looked away evasively. "In the Fire Nation . . . traditional weapons . . . are looked down on . . . after bending."

"Oh." Sokka eyes narrowed. "Can't say that's not a common sentiment _elsewhere_ too. Know what we're called in the Earth Kingdom? _Ordies_." He spat out the shortening of "ordinary" with contempt. It was as good as a cuss word, depending on who you were talking to.

"But my uncle always told me that it was a petty distinction, that it weakened our fighting forces to favor only bending."

"'Cause we all know we want to _improve_ the Fire Nation." Sokka muttered sourly, repeating Aang's sentiment mockingly.

Zuko tensed slightly at his hostile tone. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

" _Please._ You have turned against your own and you have to _ask_ me what I mean?" He questioned, in all blunt seriousness. His face went stony as he held out the blades to give back to him.

l

_It was well into the dark season of the year at the South Pole. The ground was only illuminated by white starlight. The sun wouldn't rise for several more months.  
_

_Sokka's grip tightened on his sister as they watched the green and purple patched ships approach._

_Would Hakoda be in one of them this time?_

_For every time he wished dad would return, his stomach lurched at the thought of his coming home in one of **these** boats._

_Motionless._

_Cold._

_The fire at the blubber-oil wick of his lanturn sputtered momentarily, as if drawing attention to itself._

_Here I give you light.  
_

_Here I give you life.  
_

_But out there, I take it away._

_The men who came home in these ships, were to be anointed by Kanna, and sent to the sea._

_These men, who were extinguished by one element, came home to take reprieve in their native, opposite one. Their proper resting place would always be here._

_" **Ay** -ya- **ah** -ha **hu** hay_

_**May** the **eel** -wolves **guide** your **way**_

_**May** your **spir** it **fin** ally **lay**_

_**Down** its **bur** den **'neath** the **waves**_

_**Ay** -ya- **ah** -ha **hu** hoh_

_**Th'an** cient **coil** -ed **beasts** of **old**_

_**They** will **hear** your **stor** ies **told**_

_**Now** un **wind** your **wear** y **soul**_ _. . ."_

_The slow, pounding trochaic verses of the dirge, accompanied by beats from sealskin drums, continued long after the ships had passed back out of sight.  
_

_For every time he wished his father would come home, he also gave thanks that he did not come home._

_And blessedly, Hakoda never disappointed him.  
_

l

At his allegation, Zuko looked away. The words of Gow, the Earth Kingdom soldier, came back to him. " _You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners? Dressed them up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the frontline unarmed, way I heard it. Then they just_ watched. _"_

"All I can tell you is that I'll try my best to change my Nation." Zuko said quietly as he took the blades.

They were silent for a moment.

Sokka's eyes wandered back to the swords. "I do wish I could learn some different techniques. Then I wouldn't feel-" He stopped.

"What?"

"So useless. I mean-" he sighed. "I want to be a great warrior, like my dad, y'know?"

l

_Hakoda's thick boots crunched into the freshly fallen snow as his son tagged along behind him._

_"In two weeks?" The boy asked._

_"Yes."_

_A woman with twin braids sticking out of either side of her parka hood approached them. "Chief," she bowed respectfully, "I want to go. I have no children to take care of here. I know my husband would not want me leaving, but-"_

_Hakoda's face grew weary. "Your husband would not want you risking your life after he gave his."_

_"Please," The woman said, "his memory lingers here, haunting me. I can become a fighter. Would I not still be honoring him, continuing his legacy? I can do it. I want to do it. I will work just as hard-"_

_"Battle is no place for women, Nakasa. You will stay. And that is my final decision."_

_She looked back down and her shoulders sagged._

_"My mother encouraged you to ask, didn't she?"_

* * *

_"Why are you always trying to tell dad what to do?" Sokka asked his grandmother as they sat in their igloo._

_She looked up from the patterns she was busy carving into a turtle-walrus shell. "What?"_

_"You're always trying to run everything." The little boy continued petulantly. "But he's the chief."_

_"You do not think I can provide insight, little one?" The eldest member of the tribe gave a small smile._

_"Insight, maybe," he repeated carelessly, "but he's in charge. If he says Nakasa can't go, she shouldn't."_

_Kanna sighed. "Sokka, I'm not going to argue with him any more,_ _not because I think it's right to exclude her," She put down her tools and scooted closer to him, hugging him gently, "but_ _because I don't want to have the last of my son's time here marred by strife."_ _  
_

* * *

_"I'm coming with you."  
_

_**"** You're not old enough to go to war, Sokka, you know that."_

_"I'm strong! I'm brave! I can fight! Please, Dad!"_

_**"** Being a man," Hakoda told the young boy, "is knowing where you're needed the most, and for you right now that's here, protecting your sister."_

_**"** I don't understand."_

_**"** Someday you will."_

_But right then, he felt as ineffectual as a woman.  
_

l

 _" . . ._ I promised him I would keep Katara safe." He snorted bitterly to himself. "But Katara is amazing. And I'm just me."

"I could say the same thing about Azula." Zuko shook his head. "I don't know what she did with my father when he was training her, but it scared the _fire_ out of me."

Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"She began training with my father when she was still really young, in _addition_ to her other tutors." Zuko murmured, almost to himself. "I was the _elder son_. But if I had said anything about it, I would have ended up with _this_ a lot sooner." He pointed to his face. "Even back _then_ , I wanted to live with the _illusion_ that he would ever really consider me his heir."

There was a moment as Sokka shifted nervously.

"Well, let's just say . . . that I can identify with wanting to please a father. Even if you have the worst one in history."

Zuko relaxed slightly and their eyes met briefly before returning to the sand.

The two teenagers then returned to the group to get back to sleep. The Si Wong was as harsh as the tundra, in its own way. Both landscapes were unforgiving as Sokka's accusation. But the quiet breeze that rolled down the hills gave promise for a little understanding between the two boys.


	14. Mooselion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre Scriptum: You remember the Moose-lion scene? Of course you do. You're a hardcore Avatar fan. If you are a particularly perceptive one you noticed that I omitted it from Aang's earthbending lesson, where it happens in the show. And you might have already guessed what I have planned for it . . . ;) Of course, logically, they are in a different place, and it wouldn't happen exactly the same way, but since when has that been a problem for fanfiction?
> 
> As a point of interest, I've heard seen his name spelled Foofoocuddlypoofs as often as Foofoocuddlypoops. XD But the former is what is listed in the Avatar Wiki.
> 
> This might need a minor blood trigger warning, so gonna mention that. 
> 
> And after all the serious-Sokka praise, maybe we need a little bit of funny Sokka again, doncha think? :3 Cue sardonic exposition!

"It's hard to tell before their giant teeth and horns grow in." –Aang

_Predator and Prey. Hunter and Hunted._

_The Water Tribe native crouched in a tree, poised and ready for his wily prey. His pitiless eyes gazed down upon his victim._

"You're awfully cute, but unfortunately for _you,_ you're made of meat. . . Just a bit closer-"

"HAAAAA!" _He leaped from his hiding place with the mighty warrior's cry and_ -

. . . . . got stuck.

Sokka squirmed back and forth. _How_ exactly had he gotten up to his elbows in earth?

The little brown big-nosed animal could not answer this question, but it nonetheless peered at him with curiosity.

"You are one _lucky_ meat creature." Sokka said flatly.

The meat creature's tail wagged, as if affirming its good fortune.

After a while, it had found the sparse hair on the would-be hunter's head irresistible and it climbed up on his head.

"You probably think I deserve this, don't you?" The cub looked upside down at him with big black eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I hunted you, but that's just the natural order of things! Big things eat smaller things, nothing personal! But this time it didn't work out that way."

The cub gave a wide blunt-toothed yawn, unconcerned with the musings on the organization of the universe, and circled like a fox-lynx would before settling down to take a nap.

"I admit it. You're cute." He paused. " _Okay_ , you've convinced me. If I get out of this alive, it's a comically correct vegetarian existence for me. _No_ meat. Even though meat is _so tasty_."

As if now inspired and galvanized by his words, the cub hopped down from his perch and trotted off.

It returned with an apple, an induction to his newfound life path.

"Hey! It looks like my karma is already paying off!"

It rolled it towards him.

"That's okay! I got it!" Sokka tried to reach the apple, but to no avail. The apple had stopped about a foot away, out of reach. A bad omen.

The cub soon found that his hair was not only a comfortable bed, but an incredibly entertaining toy. He began to tug at the wolftail.

"Okay karma person or thing, whoever's in charge of this stuff, if I can just get out of this situation alive, I will give up meat _and_ sarcasm. Okay? OW!" The wolftail had now become a disorderly array, really more like a boar-q-pine's quills. "That's all I got!" he implored to the sky. "It's pretty much my whole identity! Sokka, the meat and sarcasm guy! But I'm willing to be Sokka the veggies and straight talk fellow-"

"You really mean that?" A giggle sounded.

"Oh, uh, Ty Lee? Um . . ."

She stepped lightly towards him, hands held behind her back. "'Cause I kinda _like_ the sarcasm."

He laughed. "Well, it's good to be appreciated."

"And who's your friend?"

"His name is Foofoocuddlypoofs."

Ty Lee smiled. "Foo Foo. It's a _pleasure_ to make your acquaintance. Though how you tolerate _Sokka's_ company I will never know." She picked up the cub and nestled him in the crook of her arm.

"Ha. Ha. I thought _I_ was the sarcasm man around here."

"Well, if you're keeping that trait then I guess you have to stick to your promise of giving up the other." Her silver eyes sparkled with mirth.

"Well-" he stuttered, "I- um-"

"You don't want to, do you?" Her face fell slightly.

He waved his hands as much as the crevice he was wedged in would allow. "Look, it's not that I don't respect your and Aang's decision . . ."

"Hmmmm." She put on a show of studying him intently. "I suppose, technically you promised to give up sarcasm _after_ you promised to become a vegetarian. So the promise to become vegetarian . . ."

"-could be sarcasm?" His voice rose hopefully.

She gave a high, tinkly laugh at the utterly relieved look that graced his features and absently rubbed the head of the cub in her arms.

But her amused laughter was interrupted by a not-so-amused snort of the cub's mother.

She had been so wrapped up in their banter she hadn't even noticed the approach of the malignant presence.

"Oh Spirits." Sokka said, color draining from his face.

Ty Lee didn't move, side facing the animal, knowing that turning towards it would be a challenge. She fended off tension in her own voice. "Sokka, you've got to calm down." She said, reassuringly. "You're energy's pulsing too much. Think . . . well, I think of blue, 'cause that's the color your aura needs to be. But anything that settles you down."

"So you're telling me you have a power that can make that thing go away?" He tried to talk calmly as the hulking animal pawed the ground and growled menacingly.

"I'm not sure." This was _not_ the tame vulture griffin at the circus.

Sokka shut his eyes. "I think blue will do fine for me, Ty Lee . . . it's where I was raised, after all . . ."

Ty Lee slowly lowered the cub to the ground once its own energy had settled a bit and the cub's yellow aura expanded joyfully at the sight of its mother. It skipped to her side, but the red around the huge beast wasn't diminishing.

It wasn't working. Ty Lee was fighting back panic. She didn't have _nearly_ enough raw power to-

The moose-lion's aura blazed in warning a moment before it charged.

She bolted to meet it.

"Ty Lee!" Sokka opened his eyes when he felt the _whoosh_ of her disappearing feet.

Everything was moving in slow motion. The thing _towered_ over her small, slight figure as they drew closer together. She jumped with just enough height to flip forward, sailing between the huge antlers, and ram her heel, straight-legged, into the base of its firm, muscular neck. _Too_ firm.

She pushed off as hard as her aching knee would allow and landed behind it. She wobbled. The impact had done as much damage to her as it. It continued to amble forward stubbornly, claws digging for traction. If it didn't get _them_ into the boy, it would crush him if it fell forward.

She spun and thrust a whole fist into its thigh, then, still moving along its massive side, went for its shoulder, which would hopefully take it down. It lashed out sideways with both one antler and a claw, and she managed to duck, but as her other fist made contact it caught her calf with its swipe. It teetered towards the now-numb side she had attacked, and she managed to scramble away before it fell on top of her.

"Ty Lee!" Sokka's voice rose an octave at the red gashes. "It's fine." She managed to get out through small gasps. "She didn't get the tendon." The Achilles tendon. She struggled to her feet and took a few tentative steps.

"Wait! You need to bandage that!"

"I've got to go get help, Sokka." She said in a clipped, pained voice. "You're still stuck. She's not going to stay down long."

" _ **IT**_ _just sliced you up, and you have the gall to call it a SHE?_ " His voice cracked shrilly.

She faced him for a split second, eyes steely grey and determined. "Yes."

* * *

She ran, if stumbling along with a bloody calf and a hyper-extended knee could be called running. Urgency still emblazoned her every move.

Toph, predictably, saw her coming first. "Katara! Get over here!"

The two benders hurried to her as she finally let herself fall. "Toph, _you have to go get Sokka!_ " Ty Lee pointed back, and her chi did something it had never done before. It flew from her hand and hurtled through the air, reaching Sokka and illuminating him to the blind girl.

"Whoa-" Toph breathed, stunned.

"Go, Go!" Ty Lee urged her, equally as shocked but more alarmed at the prospect of the moose-lion struggling back to its feet. The earthbender took off.

"Now, let me see that." Katara leaned over her towards the red that was starting to harden and darken on her leg.

"If you d-don't mind, Katara, I'd rather y-you did my hands f-first." She held out her fingers and Katara noticed that they had turned purple and swollen- broken knuckles. The waterbender immediately immersed them in water.

"What happened?"

"T-that's what I get for punching s-something with muscles as h-hard as rock."

* * *

Katara had her healing hands full. Ty Lee had put all the force she could muster into her blows against the moose-lion, nearly shattering her hands and causing minute stress fractures in her arms and leg. Ty Lee explained to her what happened.

"Your fighting style is designed specifically to deal with humans." Katara observed as she moved water slowly from her hand to her shoulder. "It wasn't meant to take down something like that."

"N-nope." Ty Lee answered, focusing on her answer to ward off pain, now that the adrenaline and endorphins were wearing off. "B-but since I can sense chi, I could at least tell the points I needed to hit. Most people who learn the technique just have to memorize where to strike on people. L-lucky, I guess."

"Luck," Katara repeated, "and _pluck,_ " she rhymed as she finished her second arm. "The _messes_ my brother can get himself in." She shook her head in exasperation as she started on her leg. Ty Lee tried not to move too much as she giggled.

"There. I think that should do it." Katara offered her a hand and she stood.

Sokka came pounding through the trees, shouting like a madman. "Ty Lee! Ty Lee! Are you okay?"

Toph came after him, grumbling. "' _Thanks for bending me out of the ground Toph.' 'Hey, no problem, Sokka._ '" She carried on the mock conversation in annoyance.

Ty Lee turned to him. "Are _you_ okay?" she replied.

Sokka skidded to a halt in front of her and looked her up and down. "D-did Katara . . .?"

"Yeah." Ty Lee was caught by surprise as he flung his arms around her. "Spirits, Spirits . . ." he muttered in agitation, eyes shut tightly.

Ty Lee returned the hug. "I-I'm all _right_ , Sokka." She released him, but he continued to cling to her, eyes still closed. "I-It was happening a-all over a-again," he whispered, "I-I couldn't d-do anything t-to protect y-you . . ."

Her eyes widened as she remembered the moon spirit.

"It's all right, Sokka," She once again embraced him and began to rub at his back and murmur to him softly, reassuringly. "It's okay . . . I'm _fine,_ ssshhh, everything's all right . . ."

Katara had averted her gaze self-consciously, but Toph had no such ability. Her pale skin colored as their energy twined around each other, her chi flowed soothingly against him, and his frantic heartbeat gradually slowed.

"Y-you're _sure_ you're okay?" He asked her one last time as he pulled back.

Silver eyes met blue ones and he flushed as well, just then really registering their close proximity.

"Sokka, my aura has _never_ been pinker."


End file.
